Dying to Survive: Not in Vain, A Promise Kept Explores Life and Death Impact of Patient Advocacy
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They were killing her mother with negligence, Melissa Mullamphy recalls. And eight months later, Mullamphy’s mother succumbed following a cancer battle fraught with frustration, medical missteps and the endless bureaucracy that goes hand in hand with navigating our complex healthcare system.
Not in Vain, A Promise Kept is Mullamphy’s candid account of her mother’s journey and the family’s roller coaster of emotions. Readers will witness the mistakes that compounded their pain, the small victories that gave them hope, and above all, the love that kept them going during an indescribably difficult time.
Each chapter in Not In Vain, A Promise Kept represents one month from her mother’s diagnosis to her passing. Mullamphy recalls the experiences with vivid detail (the names of doctors and nurses have been changed), hoping to prompt others to ask the tough questions and learn by her example.
“My goal in writing this book is to keep the promise that I made to my mom … to share her story so others don’t go through what she and my family went through,” Mullamphy says. “You can have input, control and make a difference in your loved one’s healthcare.”
Mullamphy shares shocking lapses in her mother’s care, including blood clots the doctor fails to notice, the confusion surrounding her mother’s DNR order, the time she found her mother wearing another patient’s bracelet and the unspeakable heartbreak of learning that that all along, the hospital had used the wrong type of chemotherapy drug for her mother’s specific cancer.
Not In Vain, A Promise Kept is not without moments of hope, such as when the family is told the tumor has shrunk and when her mother’s last-ditch surgery to remove the tumor is declared “wildly successful.”
Ultimately, Not In Vain, A Promise Kept pays homage to a life well-lived and a woman well-loved, and it’s Mullamphy’s aim to help other patients and their loved ones find their voices, understand their rights and learn how to navigate a deeply complex, imperfect healthcare system.
“Use your voice, and remember that you are not there to make friends,” she adds. “Sometimes you have to be the biggest mouth in the room, but speaking up can save your loved one’s life.”
Author Melissa Mullamphy has a master’s degree in clinical psychology and has worked in psychiatric emergency rooms and step-down houses. Forever a student of mental health, she has also worked with many nonprofits, including those benefiting military veterans. For almost 20 years, she worked as a domestic operations manager for a major corporation. Following her experience with her mother’s cancer diagnosis and treatment, she began blogging about current events as they relate to healthcare.
Not in Vain, A Promise Kept ISBN-10: 1734802634 ISBN-13: 978-1734802634 Available from Amazon.com, BN.com, http://www.melissamullamphy.com and many other online outlets
Trish Stevens Corinne Walker Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone
Doctor Exposes the Shadowy World of Health Care in America
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Everyone needs health care at some point in their lives, and wouldn’t it be nice if navigating through the system was as easy as buying a new car? Actually, it should be even easier, right? Because car salespeople aren’t reputed to be the most trustworthy people in the world. Well, when you throw the covers off the American Healthcare System, you reveal a lot of shady individuals all vying for your health care dollars.
Dr. David Wilcox, with three decades of experience in health care, has a sharp warning for you: “Health care is complex, and that is not an accident. It is a strategy on the part of those who benefit from your health care dollars to keep the general public from knowing what is really going on in the healthcare system.”
His eye-opening book – How to Avoid Being a Victim of the American Healthcare System: A Patient’s Handbook for Survival – levels the playing field, enabling consumers of health care to understand how to avoid getting caught in the systemic net. After all, we will all be consumers of health care at some point in our lives.
In his own words, Dr. Wilcox’s book explores “what to do if you have to go to a hospital, how to handle an insurance company’s claim denial, how to find an alternative to high-priced prescriptions, and why the current pay-for-fee system is inadequate. You will also discover the direction the healthcare system needs to move in, to holistically care for you, the patient … information that the health care entities would prefer you didn’t know.”
Early reviewers of the book give it high praise: “A must-read for every American citizen” … “Great information on navigating our complicated and ridiculous healthcare system” … “This is info everyone should know.”
Dr. David Wilcox is a health care professional who believes proactive patient education enables those accessing the healthcare system to be better partners in their health care. He also believes that everyone has the right to access the American Healthcare System safely. A Doctorate-prepared nurse who also holds a Master’s in Health Administration and is Board Certified in Nursing Informatics, Dr. Wilcox has nearly three decades of health care experience as a bedside nurse, hospital administrator and in health care information technology, which has helped him to develop his unique perspective on the American Healthcare System.
How to Avoid Being a Victim of the American Healthcare System: A Patient’s Handbook for Survival Publisher: Here for You Publishing Available now at https://www.amazon.com/dp/0578878364 ISBN-10: 0578878364 ISBN-13: 978-0578878362
Trish Stevens Kathy Silady Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone
Trish Stevens Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 281.333.3507 Main/Office 832.334.2733 Cell [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com
(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social sharing)
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Doctor Emerges From Losing Wife To Dementia To Share Compelling Story
Those who have emerged from the experience of caring for and losing a spouse or parent to dementia understand well how difficult the journey is. But for those whose loved one has just been diagnosed, Dr. Donald Hricik’s Lynne’s Last Christmas: A Battle With Dementia may be a helpful companion to have for the difficult journey ahead.
Lynne Hricik was diagnosed with the disease at age 64, and shortly after her death, Dr. Hricik penned Lynne’s Last Christmas within a few weeks as both a way of dealing with his and his family’s grief and to provide information about the disease and about caring for someone with dementia.
“I truly hope this book will provide some comfort to the many others who are caring for someone with this awful thing called dementia. You are not alone,” says Dr. Hricik.
In Lynne’s Last Christmas, Dr. Hricik recalls the last four years of his wife’s life during which she suffered memory loss and frequent falls. He also discusses the impact of her illness upon his children and close friends, and actually debated whether to have his children read the manuscript before it was published. All agreed that they should. “They cried when they read the final draft, but in sharing their thoughts, it brought back memories—both the good times and the bad times—we’d had during Lynne’s life,” he said.
The author also goes into detail about the condition itself. Dementia, he explains, isn’t a specific disease but rather a term that captures the group of symptoms associated with a decline in memory or other thinking skills. Though sometimes confused with Alzheimer’s disease, dementia is the overall group of which Alzheimer’s makes up 60-80 percent of cases.
Dr. Hricik is currently Alzheimer’s disease at Case Western Reserve University and served as the Chief of Nephrology and Hypertension at University Hospital’s Cleveland Medical Center from 1993 to 2017. His research interests have focused on complications of immunosuppression and immune monitoring of kidney transplant recipients. He has published more than 180 articles and books, and 35 book chapters.
Royalties from the book are being donated to the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America and to the University Hospitals of Cleveland Hospice Service.
To read more about Dr. Hricik, please visit: https://dhricik.wixsite.com/website-1.
Lynne’s Last Christmas: A Battle With Dementia
Kindle Direct Publishing
Released: December 4, 2018
ISBN-10: 1790751403
ISBN-13: 978-1790751402
Available from Amazon.com
