{"id":26407,"date":"2026-08-14T07:59:03","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T11:59:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/?p=26407"},"modified":"2026-08-14T07:59:04","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T11:59:04","slug":"my-husband-was-kicked-out-of-hospice-for-dying-too-slowly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/?p=26407","title":{"rendered":"My Husband Was Kicked Out of Hospice for Dying Too Slowly"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(By Kim Clark for KFF Health News published Aug. 14, 2026)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo more operations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was mid-January 2026, and my then-73-year-old husband, Mike Salmon, had just started bouncing back from a three-month ordeal of three operations related to aortic aneurysms, sepsis, and a terrifying descent into delirium tied to a stay in the intensive care unit. Now, after another potentially fatal aortic aneurysm and ambulance ride, the doctors clustered around his hospital bed said the fix involved two more major, risky operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Mike did nothing, the aneurysm or sepsis would likely kill him, they predicted. How soon? \u201cWeeks,\u201d one doctor said. \u201cI\u2019m astonished I\u2019ve made it this far,\u201d Mike said. So, abruptly, we were shunted onto hospice care \u2014 the dead-end spur of the American medical system. Continue reading here…<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaiser Health News is a nonprofit national health polity news service that is part of the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notice:<\/strong>\u00a0The link provided above connects readers to the full content of the posted article. The URL (internet address) for this link is valid on the posted date; medicarereport.org cannot guarantee the duration of the link\u2019s validity. Also, the opinions expressed in these postings are the viewpoints of the original source and are not explicitly endorsed by AMAC, Inc.; the AMAC Foundation, Inc.; or medicarereport.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(By Kim Clark for KFF Health News published Aug. 14, 2026) \u201cNo more operations,\u201d he said. It was mid-January 2026,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,34,5],"tags":[80,316,238,590],"class_list":["post-26407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cms","category-end-of-life","category-home-health-services","tag-cms","tag-end-of-life","tag-healthcare-finance","tag-hospice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26407"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26408,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26407\/revisions\/26408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}