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13. Case Mind Over Matter?
View Case Study: 13. Case Mind Over Matter?Essie Marshall is well-known in the community for her many years of dedicated volunteer work and leadership. She is also well-known in the emergency department for her frequent visits. As one of the doctors describes her, “She’s a challenging patient, but not in the medical sense.” Today Essie is back in the emergency department, saying…
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12. Case: Should Steve Go Home?
View Case Study: 12. Case: Should Steve Go Home?Throughout his life, Steve was the athlete that everyone admired. He played all sports well, especially excelling at basketball. While being quite competitive, Steve was a team player who enjoyed being a part of the team experience. Unfortunately, while ‘horsing around’ with his friends last summer, Steve dove off a dock into water that was…
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11. Case: Truth-Telling
View Case Study: 11. Case: Truth-TellingThe patient is an 89-year-old gentleman with moderate dementia and a history of COPD, swallowing difficulties, a CVA, and recent aspiration. The investigation of his aspiration uncovered a lesion in his lung- the physicians felt it was likely to be cancerous. Thoracic surgery verified that it was lung cancer and a determination was made that…
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10. Case: At a Crossroads…
View Case Study: 10. Case: At a Crossroads…Sandra Livingstone, age 45, was admitted to the hospital with diffuse ischemic encephalopathy – a very significant, global brain injury – secondary to sustaining a massive stroke at home. It is now ten months after her admission. Ms. Livingstone is on an acute internal medicine unit where she has been living since her discharge from…
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9. Case: Right to Treatment
View Case Study: 9. Case: Right to TreatmentA 54-year-old male patient has been treated for cancer for 2 years, but his illness has not responded to the major lines of treatment. He has been admitted to hospital with worsening nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain, and failure to thrive. A CT scan showed progression of disease as evidenced by new ascites along with…
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8. Case: Who Should Decide?
View Case Study: 8. Case: Who Should Decide?This case concerns a 35-year-old developmentally delayed female patient (functional age about 5 years old); her mother is her legal guardian. The patient tested positive for a BRCA gene mutation. Her mother is concerned that her daughter may develop ovarian cancer and wants her to have preventive surgery. Her physician does not believe this is…
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4. Case: Expectations for Care
View Case Study: 4. Case: Expectations for CareNed is an elderly patient with relatively advanced dementia who is recovering from surgery to repair a hip fracture. He spends most of every 24-hour period screaming unless someone familiar sits with him. Staff members on the unit are becoming increasingly frustrated and stressed. The unit manager has received numerous complaints, verbal and written, from…
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3. Case: Superbugs
View Case Study: 3. Case: SuperbugsJeannette Cutler is an 83-year old woman admitted to hospital after falling and breaking her arm. She reports that she fell because she passed out, and so further investigations are being conducted. She has mild dementia but is otherwise seemingly healthy. Upon admission, she screens positive for MRSA and is subject to strict isolation procedures…
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2. Case: Treatment and/or Termination? Tough Choices
View Case Study: 2. Case: Treatment and/or Termination? Tough ChoicesMelanie is a 21 year old who was recently involuntarily committed after she started a serious fight at a local shelter, thinking that one of the leaders was trying to steal her favourite T-shirt. Melanie has schizophrenia and is well-known to both the police and mental health care providers. She has been living on and…


