Reporter, Northwestern Doctor Launch Website About Facing Terminal Illness
CHICAGO (CBS) -- It's a topic no one wants to talk about: death. A new website hopes to provide support for loved ones of people facing terminal illness.
WBBM Newsradio's Brandis Friedman reports Chicago TV reporter Randi Belisomo lost her husband, fellow reporter Carlos Hernandez Gomez, to cancer in 2010.
"from being home on the couch and having a nice evening to intensive care, and he was unresponsive. So, in a moment, the two of us were not able to communicate."
Months after his sudden death, Belisomo and her late husband's oncologist, Dr. Mary Mulcahy, realized no one wants to talk about the elephant in the room when facing a life-ending illness, because no one wants to talk about dying.
"The doctors don't want to take away hope from the patient, the caregiver doesn't want to take away hope from the patient, the patient doesn't want to let down their family by giving up," said Mulcahy, an associate professor of medicine at Northwestern University.
Together, Belisomo and Mulcahy have launched Life Matters Media, a website designed to get people talking about end-of-life care before it's needed.
"Different financial issues that come up, legal issues, issues related to faith," Mulcahy said.
The site offers medical information; forms such as healthcare powers of attorney, and advance directives; and real-life stories from people who've cared for dying loved ones.
"These conversations should be had among healthy people in their doctor's office," Belisomo said.
