Our Susan Brink has a piece in On Wisconson, the alumni magazine for the University of Wisconsin-Madison, on what can only be described as a physician's path of enlightenment that began with a dying man's case of the hiccups. From her story:
The hiccups wouldn’t stop. It was August of 1996, and an elderly stroke victim lay dying in his home in the small town of Driggs, Idaho. But he could have no rest. He was stricken with a relentless case of hiccups, robbing him of comfort. The episode gave David Rakel, the man’s physician and neighbor, a memorable lesson in the importance of watching, listening, and heeding the desires of his patients. Drugs, the main weapon in Rakel’s medical arsenal, made the dying man groggy and unaware, and still the hiccups continued. Family members suggested acupuncture. Like many conventional, or allopathic, Western physicians, Rakel was skeptical. But he figured acupuncture would do no harm. “I humored them. I said, ‘Sure. Why not?’ ” It worked. The acupuncturist came. The hiccups went away without sedation. “He was able to die with loving family around him and a sense of peace. It was a beautiful death,” says Rakel, now a UW-Madison professor of family medicine.
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