Most Las Vegans know Douglas Unger for his writing. He teaches at UNLV and has written for acclaimed novels, including “Leaving the Land,” which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
But he has also had some difficult personal encounters with death. He struggled to get his brother hospice care. The deaths of his first wife and his aunt, he says, have also had a big impact on him.
Hospice care is, most of us know, for the end of life. Unger says when his brother had about seven months to live they checked out several hospices, and decided on Nathan Adelson Hospice.
At the end, though, Unger was left to care for his brother because the facility would not admit him. But as hospice care has grown from its charitable roots into a $14 billion business, patients like Unger's brother and others on occasion have struggled to get a place in a hospice.
GUESTS
Doug Unger, author and UNLV English professor
Lynn Stange, chief compliance officer with Nathan Adelson Hospice
Jennifer Kirkland, adjunct faculty member with the Hospice Program at Madonna University
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