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VOLUME 20, NUMBER 49
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duke univcusity mcdicM ccatcR
DECEMBER 14,1973
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
PROPOSED NEW HOSPITAL IN HIS HANDS—The University Board of Trustees last
weekend authorized retention of the architectural firm of Hellmuth, Obata &
Kassabaum, Inc., of St. Louis to draw plans for the proposed new Duke Hospital. The
board anticipates that equity funding—the "down payment" Duke must come up with
as a final step in the go-ahead on the $91 million project—will be obtained in March. In
this picture, Dr. Stuart Sessoms, director of Duke Hospital, uses a magnetic board to
show where a new hospital would be built. At Sessoms' right hand is the present
hospital. Immediately below his left hand is the new Eye Center, and the large block
below that indicates the location of the new hospital. At the extreme top of the board
is the V.A. Hospital.
M.C. Christmas Festivities
Scheduled for Thursday
There'll be free turkeys, punch, nuts,
candy canes, brownies, music and Santa
Claus waiting for everybody at the
Medical Center Christmas Party next
Thursday, Dec. 20.
The party will be held again this year
in the Courtyard Cafeteria, which will be
decorated for the occasion by the
Department of Dietetics.
The hours will be 2-4:30 p.m. and
from 10 p.m.-l 2:30 a.m.
Dietetics is providing 20 free turkeys
as door prizes. When people enter the
cafeteria, they will receive a numbered
ticket which will hav« a stub with the
same number. The employe will retain
half the ticket and the other numbered
Psychologist Lucas Believes
Most Americans Avoid
Planning for Death
Death and taxes are both sure things,
but few of us spend as much time
planning for death as we do preparing for
taxes.
If you were to die tomorrow, is your
will in order, your insurance up to date,
your estate provided for? Does your
husband or wife know what kind of
funeral you want, how you want your
children raised, how you feel about his or
her remarrying? Do you know how your
spouse feels about death?
"Death is an exceedingly important
part of life, and most Americans really
haven't given it enough thought," said Dr.
Richard Lucas.
Lucas is an exception.
As a staff psychologist at the VA
Hospital and an associate in medical
psychology at Duke, he deals with death
every day in his role as friend and
counselor to the chronically and
incurably ill.
His patients, like most Americans, had
not given much thought to dying either.
"There is a cultural taboo in our
society against talking about death,"
Lucas said. "I have been concerned that
in the U.S., medical professionals too
often only see the families of these
patients when the disease is diagnosed
and then again when the patient dies.
"I have been concerned about what
professionals and paraprofessionals can
do in the interim to help the patient and
his family face the possibility of death."
What Lucas offers these patients is a
chance to talk about something they may
have considered unspeakable. And from
his experience and studies he has carried
out, he has found that death can be
openly discussed not only with the
incurably ill patient, but with the patient
and spouse together.
"A discussion about dying will often
break the ice and introduce other
problems that the couple needs to come
to grips with, such as marital problems
which have caused tensions but which
have been avoided because the spouse is
dying.
"It is often a great comfort to the
chronically ill or dying person to get
things like this settled and the practical
matters taken care of."
In a questionnaire study conducted by
Lucas among male hemodialysis patients
and their wives, he found that these
chronically ill kidney patients showed no
more anxiety about death than that
shown by healthy persons.
"Being exposed to the possibility of
death forces them to think about it and it
seems to reduce the fear somewhat," he
said.
In contrast, he found a much higher
death anxiety rate among persons facing
surgery, even such minor surgery as
hernia repair.
Among the hemodialysis patients and
their wives, Lucas said, it was rare to find
a couple who had extensively discussed
tieath and dying until he talked with
them. "There seemed the general belief
that to discuss directly such material is
inappropriate and harmful," he said.
For those who had discussed it earlier,
he said, there was a kind of realistic
sadness present, but both husband and
wife expressed relief at having come to
grips with the situation.
Many of the couples had earlier
avoided discussions of death because they
feared their attitudes might differ from
each other's, he said. But the study
showed that spouses tend to show very
similar attitudes about death and dying.
He found that it is usually more
important for the couple to talk and
share their feelings about death than to
withhold expression of such attitudes.
Lucas believes that persons who work
with the incurably ill can perform an
important role by aiding patients and
their families in breaking down cultural
taboos and talking out their feelings.
But Lucas believes that healthy people
would also benefit by sitting down with
their spouses and "thinking about the
unthinkable."
"It has changed my own life
dramatically working in this setting," he
said. "It has forced me to think
(Continued on page 2)
part will go into a container for the
drawing.
Two turkeys will be drawn for each
half hour during the evening and night.
Only the ticket stubs deposited in the
container during a specific half-hour
period will be drawn from for the turkeys
during that period.
But you don't have to be there to win.
If you have to leave before the drawing
during the half-hour when your ticket is
in the box, you can check back later to
see if your number was drawn, or you can
check the glass-covered bulletin board at
the end of the hallway past the cafeteria
on Friday morning. Unclaimed numbers
(Continued on page 3)
University Holidays Set
The university will observe the Christmas holidays on Monday and Tuesday,
Dec. 24 and 25. The New Year's holidays will be on Monday and Tuesday, Dec. 31
and Jan. 1.
In 1974 the Christmas holidays will be observed on three days, Wednesday,
Thursday and Friday, Dec. 25, 26 and 27.
The following is a list of holidays to be observed by the university during 1974;
New Year's Day January 1, 1974
Easter Monday April 15, 1974
Memorial Day May 27, 1974
Independence Day Holidays July 4, 5 1974
Labor Day September 2, 1974
Thanksgiving Holidays November 28, 29, 1974
Christmas Holidays December 25, 26, 27, 1974