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Melissa Bailey on Muck Rack

Melissa Bailey

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Boston, Colorado
As seen in: CNN, MSN, The New York Times, Color Research & Application, HuffPost, The Guardian, The Washington Post, TIME, USA Today, WebMD and
Journalist covering climate & health. 2015 Nieman fellow. ✏️ in WaPo, @nytimes & others. Prev: @KHNews, @statnews, @newhavenindy, Scripps fellow @CUBoulder.
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'No one is coming.' Hospice patients abandoned at death's door

'No one is coming.' Hospice patients abandoned at death's door

PBS Newshour — An analysis by Kaiser Health News of 20,000 government inspection records revealed that missed visits and neglect are common for patients dying at home. Families across the country have called for help in times of crisis and been met with delays, no-shows and unanswered calls.
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Ambulance trips can leave you with surprising - and very expensive - bills

Ambulance trips can leave you with surprising - and very expensive - bills

The Washington Post — One patient got a $3,660 bill for a four-mile ride. Another was charged $8,460 for a trip from a hospital that could not handle his case to another that could. Still another found herself marooned at an out-of-network hospital, where she'd been taken by ambulance without her consent.
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Dying at home in pain doesn't keep relatives from stealing the pills

Dying at home in pain doesn't keep relatives from stealing the pills

The Washington Post — Nothing seemed to help the patient - and the hospice staff didn't know why. They sent home more painkillers for several weeks. But the elderly woman, who had severe dementia and incurable breast cancer, kept calling out in pain.
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'Put The Fire Under Us': Church Spurs Parishioners To Plan For Illness And Death

'Put The Fire Under Us': Church Spurs Parishioners To Plan For Illness And Death

The Washington Post — "It would feel like murder to pull her life support," a young woman tells the doctor. The woman sits by a hospital bed where her mother, Selena, lies unresponsive, hooked up to a breathing tube.
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As Trump Targets Immigrants, Elderly Brace To Lose Caregivers

As Trump Targets Immigrants, Elderly Brace To Lose Caregivers

khn.org — BOSTON - After back-to-back, eight-hour shifts at a chiropractor's office and a rehab center, Nirva arrived outside an elderly woman's house just in time to help her up the front steps. Nirva took the woman's arm as she hoisted herself up, one step at a time, taking breaks to ease the pain in her hip.
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Unlocked And Loaded: Families Confront Dementia And Guns

Unlocked And Loaded: Families Confront Dementia And Guns

khn.org — As America copes with an epidemic of gun violence, there has been vigorous debate about how to prevent people with mental illness from acquiring weapons. But what about the vast cache of firearms in the homes of aging Americans with impaired or declining mental faculties?
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A Final Comfort: 'Palliative Transport' Brings Dying Children Home

A Final Comfort: 'Palliative Transport' Brings Dying Children Home

Kaiser Health News — Anne Brescia sat beside her only child, Anthony, as he lay unconscious in a hospital bed at age 16. Just a few months before, he was competing in a swim meet; now cancer was destroying his brain. Brescia couldn't save her son. But she was determined to bring him home.
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A genetic-testing scam is targeting seniors and ripping off Medicare

A genetic-testing scam is targeting seniors and ripping off Medicare

USA Today — The 86-year-old woman in rural Utah doesn't usually answer solicitations from strangers, she said, but the young couple who knocked on her front door seemed so nice. Before long, she had handed over her Medicare and Social Security numbers - and allowed them to swab her cheek to collect her DNA.
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Lost On The Frontline

Lost On The Frontline

Kaiser Health News — "Lost on the Frontline" is a collaboration between The Guardian and Kaiser Health News that aims to document the lives of health care workers in the U.S. who die from COVID-19, and to understand why so many are falling victim to the pandemic.
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