Click here for a link to Dying to be heard, Part 1 I meant it when I told Mr. Garcia that I would support him in his decision to forego dialysis. But I fully expected him to change his mind, just like every other patient under 85 years old with advanced kidney failure I had ever encountered. “I’d rather die than have dialysis,” they all said. But without fail, they all changed their minds when the symptoms they could no longer deny came. When death was in their personal space, staring them in their eyes. They were all willing to give dialysis a try. Death was tiptoeing up to Mr. Garcia when I met him. He already had severe anemia that wouldn’t respond to our medicines, but he said made him feel better. He already had fluid building up in his lungs, but he blamed that on his blood pressure medications. He actually seemed relieved when I referred him to hospice. Until hospice actually came. Then, he resented hospice. Their visits and their questions. He felt th