June 24, 2005

Close Encounters at the Hospital

By KATHERINE S. MANGAN

For years, the elderly woman had shuffled in and out of the hospital, kept alive by dialysis machines, medications that made her groggy, and physicians who pulled out all the stops to keep her going when her body wanted to call it quits.

This time, she told her doctor, she was ready to die. But her children weren't about to let go.

Erin Stratta, a 22-year-old senior at Santa Clara University, stepped into the middle of this family crisis while shadowing a social worker at

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