Living on, with heartbreak
The list seemed too long for one person to read, so the small group took turns. They stood round a table in a hushed conference room that December night a...
All Stories
Learning how to say goodbye
No one knew why the boy started shimmying, going for the corners of his hospital bed. R.J. Voigt was suddenly restless, agitated. The 12-year-old kept calling out for his mom....
Buying time at a heavy price
The summer storm had been brewing for hours. From his hospital bed, R.J. Voigt looked out the tall window and watched the lightning streak across the gray sky. "One Mississippi,...
The most difficult journey
That night after everyone had gone, when it was late and the hospital was quiet, the boy savored his triumph. He eyed the long white coat that hung nearby. An...
Promising stroke therapy may be held up in debates
When Ruth Johnston got a crushing headache and started to slur words that morning on the sailboat, her husband took action. He radioed the Coast Guard that she was having...
The famous dead yield only murky diagnoses
The claims are everywhere: on posters and T-shirts, on the Internet and in books, even sometimes headlining the national news. Thomas Jefferson's eccentricities were actually a form of autism. Albert...
Death, then a search for kindest of words
After they'd injected the dying man with IV medications, after they'd pounded his chest, after they'd cut Robert Jackson open and jolted his heart with electricity, there was nothing left...
New hope for halting a killer illness
She thought it was just a cold. Her throat was sore, and she felt tired all over. But as JoAnn Barr got her son ready for school that morning in...
Getting to Alzheimer’s roots
The end for the Alzheimer's patient is a horror: The person is mute, bedridden, adrift from the thoughts and feelings that make up a life. The brain undergoes an equally...
Cruelest mystery: death before life
That chilly night in late October, the delivery room was so quiet. The doctor wrapped the 8-pound, 21-inch newborn girl in a pink-and-blue striped cotton blanket, pulled a matching cap...