Death By Design

Over four decades of treating the gravely ill Dr. Robert Fine has seen it all.  With his calm presence, his deep voice and methodical manner he bridges the gap between the medical culture and patients and families. He and his palliative care team at Baylor Medical Center are part interpreters, part guides, part physicians hoping to ensure patients and families fully understand the medical diagnosis and the outcomes of all treatment options on their quality of life.

Dr. Fine is said to have the knowledge of a veteran physician, the wisdom of a philosopher and demeanor of a clinical psychologist except for one additional characteristic; he is a humble man as he treats those most vulnerable within our medical environment.

Dr. Robert Fine has held many roles on state and national medical commissions over the years.  He has helped shaped the way Texans approach end of life conversations and planning.

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David is Executive Director and Founder of New Jersey Goals of Care, a non-profit entity devoted to improving medical decision-making for seniors. In addition to his roll with Goals of Care, he is chief of the Section of Geriatric Medicine and Medical Director of the Acute Cart for the Elderly (ACE) unit at the University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro. He also serves as Medical Director of Princeton Care Center, a skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility located in Princeton. Dr. Barile completed his undergraduate education at University of California at Santa Cruz and received his Doctorate of Medicine from Eastern Virginia Medical School. He completed his Internship and Residency at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City and a two-year Geriatric Fellowship at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He received Internal Medicine board certification in 1999, Geriatric Medicine certification in 2001 and Hospice/Palliative Medicine certification in 2005. He has been in clinical practice since 2000.

Dr. Barile is also Managing Partner and Medical Director with Your Care Plan.

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Doctors work in life-and-death situations every day. But what happens when they encounter something even they can’t explain scientifically?

Dreams foretelling future events, apparitions, and other miraculous experiences fill this book, as practicing doctors recount the most unusual moments of their careers.

Meant to awe, instruct, and inspire, these tales will convince even the harshest skeptic that there are things beyond this physical world and that sometimes, all we need to do is believe.

Physicians’ Untold Stories doesn’t stop at chronicling these occurrences. Scott J. Kolbaba, MD, provides a glimpse into the lives of doctors that few get to experience. Learn their agonies and joys. In their own words, doctors reach out to you and show you how faith in the divine has shaped their lives. Even in the darkest of times, as they comfort terminally ill patients and make impossible choices, moments of light shine through.

Like the popular Chicken Soup for the Soul series, Kolbaba has catalogued inspiration moments into small stories perfect for bite-size reading—or maybe for gobbling up all at once!

Bio

Dr. Kolbaba is an internist in private practice in Wheaton, Illinois. He graduated from the University of Illinois College of Medicine with honors and did his residency at Rush Presbyterian-Saint Lukes Medical Center in Chicago and at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He has been awarded membership in the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society and has been featured in Chicago magazine as a “Top Doctor” in internal medicine. His friends accuse him of specializing in “big.” Being an only child, he now has a family of seven children. “I wouldn’t give up any of them, at least most of the time!” His other passions include his Newfoundland puppy, already one hundred thirty pounds, and flying kites. Yes, only the big ones. At sixteen square meters, his bright orange and green kite-boarding kite was his favorite until it pulled his neighbor and himself off the ground with a gentle breeze. They both dropped off before they ended up in the clouds. He still doesn’t understand why his neighbor won’t help with his kite hobby anymore. Following the same theme in his garden, Dr. Kolbaba has grown Atlantic Giant pumpkins and is the proud winner of the Sycamore, Illinois, and pumpkin-growing contest two years running. The first time was a surprise, but, the next year, the family invited all their friends to the festivities, which started with the cord cutting in the pumpkin patch by an experienced gynecologist. A caravan of obnoxious horn-blowing cars followed the flat bed truck carrying the precious pumpkin to the contest, where they were pronounced the winner again with a trophy and a cash prize of fifteen dollars. 

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In 2004, Michelle was working as a surgical nurse at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, when her father died unexpectedly. Michelle returned home to Philadelphia and switched to hospice nursing. 

Michelle explains: "It was a personal healing journey. For me, everything that I didn't get to do for my dad I was now doing for all of these other people. So it was really important to me."

Michelle serves as a level 3 RN on her hospice unit, and as a preceptor to nursing students and advisor to newly hired employees. During her 13 years as a Hospice nurse Michelle has received many awards, but her favorite is the UPHS Nursing Excellence Award in reconigtion of Nurse/Patient-Family Relationships (2010).

Michelle makes her home in Philadelphia where she raises two little boys. 

https://www.thenursewiththepurplehair.com

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Yvonne Heath is a wife, mother to three children and a nurse since 1988. She has worked in ten different hospitals. As a registered nurse, she has witnessed a grief phobic society, and how our reluctance to talk about, plan and prepare for grief, death and dying causes excessive suffering personally, professionally in life, and at the end of life. 

​She realized that while working as a nurse, she was suffering too. It’s time for change. Yvonne is helping to create this culture of change through her book, her speaking, workshops, social media, radio, television and most recently her “I Just Showed Up” Campaign.

​Yvonne believes when we learn to talk about and plan for grief, something amazing happens; we live more fully and we suffer less at the end of our lives. 

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Michelle Acciavatti is an End-of-Life Specialist. What is that?  It is a new emerging field outside the medical model and is reclaiming the dying progress as a human experience. 

Following her curiosity and a calling to serve individuals at end of life, Michelle meets patients and families where they are and hopes to shine a light on a very “taboo” subject; Death.  She provides value-based advance care planning, assistance with patient literacy and advocacy, she provides non-medical support, including experienced or expecting pregnancy loss, and is opening new ways to think about burials, by thinking GREEN. 

Her supporting presence is molded into what patients and families need.  She has become a bridge for her clients by providing and connecting them to community resources, by giving them permission to ask the hard questions, validating the uncertainty of the dying process and being a comforting presence.   

Michelle has become a student of life by allowing dying individuals to teach her about what matters most. Her motto is, “Life Matters.  Talk About Death”

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From the Director, Phillip Baribeau - About the Film

I met Eduardo and Jen five years ago when I worked with them on a trailer for their TV show called Active Ingredient. I could see right away that Eduardo had a huge passion for life, cooking and the outdoors. I shared his belief in living a healthy lifestyle and knew I had made a lifelong friend with whom I could explore Montana’s wilderness. The show was just about to sell when we got the bad news of Eduardo’s injury. During his time in the hospital, Jen took it upon herself to film his recovery with the idea to someday make a documentary. When Eduardo made it back to Montana, I started to follow him with my camera as he went through chemotherapy and began his journey to get back into his life through fly-fishing, hiking, hunting and cooking. It was incredible to see him tackle all of his obstacles while keeping a positive attitude. Eduardo is reaching the stage in his life where he wants to give back, say thanks and use his tragedy to help others. I want to be there to film this journey and to see the effect he will have on everyone around him. His story is something worth sharing and will make a difference in people’s lives no matter what kind of struggles they are having. 

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Phillip earned a degree in Media and Theatre Arts from Montana State University.  Following his passion for film, storytelling and adventure, he went to work in television and documentary filmmaking.  His most credited broadcast series are Destination Extreme on National Geographic (field producer / DP /editor), AX Men on the History Channel (DP) and Mountain Men on the History Channel (camera operator).  In 2008, Phillip founded Implement Productions, based in Bozeman, MT. Phillip recently his first feature length documentary, Unbranded (director).  Unbranded won the 2015 Audience Choice Award at both Hot Docs in Toronto, ON and Telluride Mountain Film Festival in CO.

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A Message from Eduardo: 

By all accounts I should not be alive and sitting at my desk writing this today! Having my health and the clarity of mind to write these words and pursue my dreams fills me with such gratitude. As with most things in life, what happens on the outside is only a fraction of the complete picture, 90 percent of my story is about what lies beneath the surface. Reflecting back almost four years since that day in the woods, it is unmistakably clear that the pain and trauma I felt was not an event exclusive to me, but rather something that my family, friends, community and medical team also experienced. When I was wracked with pain so were they. As I struggled to survive, they were struggling right there with me.

The person I am today is not the result of one, two or three people’s efforts, but countless people all joining together to work as one supportive unit to help me rebuild my life. This documentary is about telling that 90 percent. It’s about giving credit to the team that is required to make it through a traumatic event, and the steps I made personally to be the strongest team player I could. My intention with this film is to give back. I have been given so much help, by so many. How can I repay that help? How can I say thank you? There are so many underlying layers to trauma, recovery, relationships and caring for others. I want to dig deep into my own bizarre experience and share the raw details of what survival and true recovery really look like. Through this intimate look at my own story I hope to help others recognize that we all have our mountains to climb, and to ignite within them the courage and commitment it takes to look honestly at ourselves and tackle our own challenges by the horns.

Many people do not manage to get back up after a traumatic injury. This is because it sucks and because it’s hard! A smile is one of the most powerful ways to say, “Yes, I will try. I can do this!” If this documentary brightens at least one face with a smile and sets off that spark of energy needed to embrace one’s own experience and start living life fully charged, then I will have succeeded in my mission to help others.

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