When we fail to distinguish among dying outcomes we're more susceptible to dying the non-peaceful deaths we all say we want to avoid. Because the sole word 'dying' fails to forecast the choices in front of us, we need a range of accurate terms to describe them. A unique and new thanatological work, Windrum's Matrix of Dying Terms for the first time both identifies and names sixteen distinctly different dying outcomes ahead of all of us in the 21st century. 

Windrum's Matrix of Dying Terms™

2008: published:
• Notes from the Waiting Room: Managing a Loved One's (End of Life) Hospitalization (a 2009 Colorado Book Awards Finalist
• How to Efficiently Settle the Family Estate
• The Option to Die in PEACE (Patient Ethical Alternative Care Elective), a Colorado healthcare reform initiative.

www.AxiomAction.com/books

Notes from the Waiting Room: Managing a Loved One's (End of Life) Hospitalization

We who want to die in peace, or have family members who want to and fail, have a deep conundrum. Many obstacles impede reaching our goal. With 2.5 million Americans dying annually (and more worldwide), with family members surviving with haunted memories, we all have an absurd and needlessly painful quandary. Windrum's Never Say Die Rap is a wry, satirical yet upbeat, solution-oriented musical statement.

Windrum's Never Say Die Rap

At sixty years of age and a college dropout, I don't necessarily put much stock in formal education. I believe my works, listed below, are the functional equivalent of a masters degree.

• Notes from the Waiting Room: Managing a Loved One's (End of Life) Hospitalization
• How to Efficiently Settle the Family Estate
• Windrum's Matrix of Dying Terms™

Windrum Testimony.mp3

How to advocate when hospitalized. How to revision end of life to increase the likelihood of dying in peace.

How to Efficiently Settle the Family Estate

The only one of thirty-one proposals submitted to the Colorado Blue Ribbon Commission for Healthcare Reform that mentioned "death," "dying," or "end of life."

The Option to Die in PEACE (Patient Ethical Alternative Care Elective)

Medical error has been reliably identified as among America’s leading causes of death. Yet it never appears in “top ten causes of death” charts that periodically appear in the literature. Including fatal medical error and disclosing it during public end-of-life informational presentations would be an act of participatory medicine which would offer citizens the opportunity to factor error into our risk/benefit calculations as we ponder what we must do to increase our likelihood of dying in peace.

It’s Time to Account for Medical Error in “Top Ten Causes of Death” Charts

For the fastest broadest overview of my work see the 20 minute talk at TEDxFoCo talk at http://goo.gl/116g7 . Note: this talk contains a satirical rap starting at 8:00. It serves a purpose—highlighting our absurd quandary succinctly. People either love it or hate it. If it turns you off advance to the 10:30 mark and continue the talk.

During 2004 and 2005 each my parents died after approximately 3 weeks' stay in what became their terminal hospitalizations. Neither was expected. My folks were advance-planned and we'd had multiple conversations about end of life matters and preferences. Both demises were long and rough on all of us in our patient-family. Medical errors, small and large, became hallmarks of each.

Not wanting to fail again at attaining a peaceful death, I undertook to get to the bottom of our experiences. The resulting book, Notes from the Waiting Room: Managing a Loved One's (End of Life) Hospitalization offers guidance for how to advocate when hospitalized and about revisioning end of life in order to die in peace. Notes was a 2009 Colorado Book Award finalist and the work is endorsed by a range of providers.

Now (early 2014), the past 2 years have brought a range of new works:
- Windrum's Matrix of Dying Terms™
- Never Say Die Rap
- JoPM.org article about including medical error (the US's third leading cause of death) included in "top causes of death" charts
- webinar and semiar series: Overcoming the Seven Deadly Obstacles to Dying in Peace.

While death and dying are not particularly happy topics, the sense of empowerment one can obtain from gaining knowledge is rewarding and priceless. Americans have reached the point of wanting some guidance about dying in peace. My presentations go deep, offering unique, and uniquely formulated, actionable content.

[keyword add: hospice, palliation, palliative, end of life, aid in dying]

Windrum_OneSheet.pdf

End of Life

Advocate

Hospital

Estate

Axiom Action website

Dying IN Peace to Die AT Peace: New Terms of Engagement

Dying in Peace

Why Do We Buy Off-the-Shelf Dying (and How to Die in Peace)

How to Die in Peace

Preventable Failures

90% of us say we want to die in peace. About 15% of us do. Why the disconnect? Even with advance directives, it's too easy for the peaceful death we want to get derailed due to chance, shifting circumstances, error, or design. In this talk I bring forth a range of issues that together tend to create troubled demises for the dying and lifetime regret for survivors. We can change that.

Why Do We Buy Off-the-Shelf Dying? and How to Die in Peace

This talk frames dying peacefully within the context of overcoming the 5 primary obstacles to doing so. It includes a performance of Windrum's Never Say Die Rap, a musical statement of our absurd and painful quandary, and a concise overview of Windrum's Matrix of Dying Terms, which for the first time both identifies and names the full range of distinctly different dying outcomes ahead of all of us in the 21st century.

Nick Armstrong, Curator, TEDxFoCo

Curator, TEDxFoCo

Ron Huff, HCA Ethics Director

Director, Center for Clinical Ethics

Regina Holliday, international patient conference speaker

Founding Artist, The Walking Gallery

Elinor Christiansen

President

Diann Uustal

RN, MS, EdD; Clinical Ethicist

Robert Eaton

Director of Mission and Spiritual Care, Office of Mission and Ministry

Richard D. Lamm

former Colorado Governor

Cordt T. Kassner, PhD

Daniel Johnson, MD

Palliative Medicine Physician

author / change agent / patient-family advocate

Bart Windrum Sampler.mp4

Clips from Bart Windrum's keynote presentation to Hospital Corporation of America interspersed with personal interview.

Bart Windrum Keynote and Conversation

Bart Windrum is an end-of-life reform advocate who's spent the last eight years reflecting on how to overcome modern medicine's impediments to dying in peace...

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