Miriam Johnson

Out of tragedy comes a miracle... Miriam's miracle This medical memoir is wrapped in a love story like no other, demonstrating God's love throughout the most desperate moments and a husband's unwavering and decades-long devotion to his wife. Imagine experiencing a work-related injury that spirals into decades of life-altering pain and suffering. Imagine fighting a system that seems stacked against you. And imagine a husband-turned-advocate who documents the ordeal, sharing the raw details of an uphill climb through the halls of medicine and courtrooms. As a wife, mother, and employee, Miriam Johnson's nightmare began with a slip-and-fall accident that set her husband and nine-year-old son on a trajectory of caregiving that they never could have imagined. The Johnson family's story is love personified - a transcendent and stubborn love made possible by faith, courage, and God's ultimate timing. Miraculously, Miriam recovered well after her son was grown and had a family of his own. Her husband, Mark, lovingly recounts the "then" and "now" and shares his dear wife's victory over impossible odds.

Excellent end of life care for people with heart failure is challenging but possible. Failure to address this aspect of care has serious consequences for patients, their families, clinicians and the use of health resources. Heart Failure: From Advanced Disease to Bereavement illustrates the complexity and importance of end of life care for patients with advanced heart failure. This book is a pocket reference for everyday use in the clinic, ward or home visit for all doctors, nurses and AHPs caring for people with advanced heart failure. It outlines the underlying pathophysiology of heart failure, summarises standard pharmacological and device therapy, and sets the context of the challenges resulting from an unpredictable course of disease. In easily digestible summaries, this book presents practical advice about how and when to integrate a palliative care approach alongside standard heart failure management, how to communicate honestly in the face of uncertainty, the rationalisation of medication and device therapies at the end of life, symptom control, care for the dying, and care after death.