Playlists > 🌳 Terminal illness - life lessons

🌳 Terminal illness - life lessons
Description:

People diagnosed with terminal illness and their struggle with mortality and stories of people dealing with end-of-life experience.


Creator: Greer
Posted: 3 years ago
 
Favorite

4 favorites

732 views

info
Movie: The Fault in Our Stars ( 2014 )
Two teenage cancer patients begin a life-affirming journey to visit a reclusive author in Amsterdam.
info
Movie: P.S. I Love You ( 2007 )
A young widow discovers that her late husband has left her 10 messages intended to help ease her pain and start a new life.
info
Movie: Restless ( 2011 )
The story of a terminally ill teenage girl who falls for a boy who likes to attend funerals and their encounters with the ghost of a Japanese kamikaze pilot from WWII.
info
TV Show: Breaking Bad ( 2008 )
Breaking Bad follows protagonist Walter White, a chemistry teacher who lives in New Mexico with his wife and teenage son who has cerebral palsy. White is diagnosed with Stage III cancer and given a prognosis of two years left to live. With a new sense of fearlessness based on his medical prognosis, and a desire to secure his family's financial security, White chooses to enter a dangerous world of drugs and crime and ascends to power in this world. The series explores how a fatal diagnosis such as White's releases a typical man from the daily concerns and constraints of normal society and follows his transformation from mild family man to a kingpin of the drug trade.
info
Movie: Veronika Decides to Die ( 2015 )
After a frantic suicide attempt, Veronika awakens inside a mysterious mental asylum. Under the supervision of an unorthodox psychiatrist who specializes in controversial treatment, Veronika learns that she has only weeks to live.
info
Movie: Love Story ( 1970 )
A boy and a girl from different backgrounds fall in love regardless of their upbringing - and then tragedy strikes.
info
Movie: Moulin Rouge! ( 2001 )
A poet falls for a beautiful courtesan whom a jealous duke covets.
info
Movie: 50/50 ( 2011 )
Inspired by a true story, a comedy centered on a 27-year-old guy who learns of his cancer diagnosis and his subsequent struggle to beat the disease.
info
Movie: You're Not You ( 2014 )
A drama centered on a classical pianist who has been diagnosed with ALS and the brash college student who becomes her caregiver.
info
Movie: Leaving Las Vegas ( 1995 )
Ben Sanderson, a Hollywood screenwriter who lost everything because of his alcoholism, arrives in Las Vegas to drink himself to death. There, he meets and forms an uneasy friendship and non-interference pact with prostitute Sera.
info
Movie: Harold and Maude ( 1971 )
Young, rich, and obsessed with death, Harold finds himself changed forever when he meets lively septuagenarian Maude at a funeral.
info
Movie: Bright Star ( 2009 )
The three-year romance between 19th-century poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne near the end of his life.
info
Movie: The Bucket List ( 2008 )
Two terminally ill men escape from a cancer ward and head off on a road trip with a wish list of to-dos before they die.
info
Movie: Stepmom ( 1998 )
A terminally ill woman has to settle on her former husband's new lover, who will be their children's stepmother.
info
Movie: A Walk to Remember ( 2002 )
The story of two North Carolina teens, Landon Carter and Jamie Sullivan, who are thrown together after Landon gets into trouble and is made to do community service.
info
Movie: My Sister's Keeper ( 2009 )
Anna Fitzgerald looks to earn medical emancipation from her parents who until now have relied on their youngest child to help their leukemia-stricken daughter Kate remain alive.
info
Movie: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl ( 2015 )
High schooler Greg, who spends most of his time making parodies of classic movies with his co-worker Earl, finds his outlook forever altered after befriending a classmate who has just been diagnosed with cancer.
info
Movie: All My Life ( 2020 )
A couple's wedding plans are thrown off course when the groom is diagnosed with liver cancer.
info
Movie: Babyteeth ( 2020 )
Milla, a seriously ill teenager, falls in love with a drug dealer, Moses, her parents' worst nightmare.
info
Movie: Clouds ( 2020 )
Seventeen-year-old Zach Sobiech is a fun-loving high school senior with raw musical talent. But a few weeks into his senior year, just after asking out his long-time crush, Zach's world gets turned upside down when he finds out his cancer has spread, leaving him with a life expectancy of just six months. With the limited time he has left, he and his best friend and writing partner, Sammy, decide to follow their dreams and finally make an album. Little do they know, they'll soon become a viral music phenomenon. But with time running out, Zach is confronted with the reality that no matter how he spends his time, he is going to hurt the people he loves the most, including Amy, the love of his life. As Zach's health condition begins to worsen, he is left to make difficult decisions about how to spend his time and more importantly with whom. Ultimately, he discovers the best way to say goodbye is with music, and his hit song CLOUDS is born. With an unfiltered, heartbreaking, and beautiful look at the duality of life set to uplifting music, Zach's inspiring story is a testament to what can happen when you start to live as if each day might be your last.
info
Movie: Romance Doll ( 2020 )
It was a pre-destined love and marriage for Sonoko and Tetsuo. They tied the knot and became husband and wife no questions asked. All is well then. Well, perhaps not. Each holds a secret that even the binds of matrimony cannot untie. Sonoko does not know that Tetsuo makes sex dolls or Dutch wives. Sonoko has a secret too. She is about to tell Tetsuo what she has been hiding. Their marriage is already sexless. Will they make it?
info
Movie: Keith ( 2008 )
Natalie has it all: yearbook editor, scholarship to college, star athlete, reigning social queen. Then Keith enters her life. Secretive and enigmatic, he slowly lures her from her comfort zone. The more Keith holds back, the more Natalie becomes intrigued with figuring him out. In her head, she's determined to keep him at arm's length, but in her heart she can't resist him. As Natalie's world slowly unravels, both their lives are changed forever in this powerful love story.
info
Movie: Dying Young ( 1991 )
After she discovers that her boyfriend has betrayed her, Hilary O'Neil is looking for a new start and a new job. She begins to work as a private nurse for a young man suffering from blood cancer. Slowly, they fall in love, but they always know their love cannot last because he is destined to die.
info
Movie: Me Before You ( 2016 )
A girl in a small town forms an unlikely bond with a recently-paralyzed man she's taking care of.
info
Movie: Love & Other Drugs ( 2010 )
A young woman suffering from Parkinson's befriends a drug rep working for Pfizer in 1990s Pittsburgh.
info
Movie: Sweet November ( 2001 )
A workaholic executive, and an unconventional woman agree to a personal relationship for a short period. In this short period she changes his life.
info
Movie: Other People ( 2016 )
Follows David as he moves back home to be with his mother for the year between her giving up her fight against cancer and slowly dying. Davids relationship with his family is, at best, strained (especially in regard to his father) because of an apparent difficulty in accepting his homosexuality. Although the subject matter is genuinely distressing, his mothers death ultimately helps restore his familial bonds and become an integrated part of the family unit again.
info
Movie: Life in a Year ( 2020 )
The movie follows 17-year-old Daryn who finds out that his girlfriend is dying. He sets out to give her an entire life in the last year she has left.
info
Movie: Irreplaceable You ( 2018 )
A couple who have known each other since 8 are destined to be together until death do them apart.
info
Movie: Philadelphia ( 1994 )
When a man with HIV is fired by his law firm because of his condition, he hires a homophobic small time lawyer as the only willing advocate for a wrongful dismissal suit.
info
Movie: Last Holiday ( 2006 )
Upon learning of a terminal illness, a shy woman decides to sell off all her possessions and live it up at a posh European hotel.
info
Movie: Life as a House ( 2001 )
When a man is diagnosed with terminal cancer, he takes custody of his misanthropic teenage son, for whom quality time means getting high, engaging in small-time prostitution, and avoiding his father.
info
Movie: Terms of Endearment ( 1983 )
Follows hard-to-please Aurora looking for love and her daughter's family problems.
info
Movie: Last Cab to Darwin ( 2016 )
When Rex, a Broken Hill cab driver, is told he doesn't have long to live, he sets out on an epic journey to Darwin in a bid to die on his own terms.
info
Movie: Beginners ( 2011 )
A young man is rocked by two announcements from his elderly father: that he has terminal cancer and that he has a young male lover.
info
Movie: Now Is Good ( 2012 )
A girl dying of leukemia compiles a list of things she'd like to do before passing away. Topping the list is her desire to lose her virginity.
info
Movie: A Little Bit of Heaven ( 2011 )
An irreverent young woman who uses her humor to prevent matters from getting serious has a life-changing visit with her doctor.
info
Movie: Five Feet Apart ( 2019 )
Seventeen-year-old Stella spends most of her time in the hospital as a cystic fibrosis patient. Her life is full of routines, boundaries and self-control all of which get put to the test when she meets Will, an impossibly charming teen who has the same illness. There's an instant flirtation, though restrictions dictate that they must maintain a safe distance between them. As their connection intensifies, so does the temptation to throw the rules out the window and embrace that attraction. Love has no boundaries.
info
Movie: My Life ( 1993 )
A terminally ill man prepares for his death.
info
Movie: Autumn in New York ( 2000 )
Romantic drama about an aging playboy who falls for a sweet, but terminally ill, young woman.
info
Movie: The Dark Side of the Sun ( 1988 )
Traveling in search of a cure for a rare skin disease, a man finds freedom and love along the way.
info
Movie: My Life Without Me ( 2003 )
A young woman conceals the fact of her terminal cancer to live her life with a passion she never had before.
info
Movie: Alternate Endings: Six New Ways to Die in America ( 2019 )
An exploration of the changing attitudes in the United States surrounding death, including the ways it is recognized today and how many approach the end of life.
info
Movie: Tig ( 2015 )
An intimate, mixed media documentary that follows Tig Notaro, a Los Angeles based comedian, who just days after being diagnosed with invasive stage II breast cancer changed the course of her career with a poignant stand-up set that became legendary overnight. This documentary explores Tig's extraordinary journey as her career ignites and as her life unfolds in grand and unexpected ways, all the while continuing to battle a life-threatening illness and falling in love. This film is a hybrid of comedy and drama that captures a personal journey about facing crisis head on with honesty and grace and overcoming pain and suffering with the healing power of comedy. It's a story about moving forward during a period of your life when you don't know what is going to happen. When you are willing to risk it all for what you believe is the right thing to do and for what you want to happen in this life.
info
Movie: Funny People ( 2009 )
When seasoned comedian George Simmons learns of his terminal, inoperable health condition, his desire to form a genuine friendship causes him to take a relatively green performer under his wing as his opening act.
info
Movie: The Doctor ( 1991 )
When a self-centered doctor is diagnosed with cancer, he becomes better able to empathize with his patients and appreciate a life outside his career.
info
Movie: Wit ( 2001 )
A renowned professor is forced to reassess her life when she is diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer.
info
Movie: Brian's Song ( 1971 )
Based on the real-life relationship between teammates Brian Piccolo and Gale Sayers and the bond established when Piccolo discovers that he is dying.
info
Movie: One True Thing ( 1998 )
A career woman reassesses her parents' lives after she is forced to care for her cancer-stricken mother.
info
Movie: Still Alice ( 2015 )
A linguistics professor and her family find their bonds tested when she is diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease.
info
Movie: Midnight Sun ( 2018 )
A 17-year-old girl suffers from a condition that prevents her from being out in the sunlight.
info
Movie: Everything, Everything ( 2017 )
A 17-year-old girl named Madeline Whittier has a rare disease that requires her to stay indoors 24/7 with her filtered air. Her whole life, basically, is books, her mom, and her nurse Carla. One day, a moving truck pulls in next door, and out steps Olly Bright, Maddy's new neighbor. They get to know each other through emails. The more they get to know each other, the deeper in love they fall. Olly makes Maddy realize she isn't really living; this starts the adventures of her new life.
info
TV Show: Life Sentence ( 2018 )
Life Sentence centers on a young woman diagnosed with terminal cancer. When she finds out that she's not dying after all, she has to learn to live with the choices she made when she decided to "live like she was dying."
info
Movie: My Girl ( 1991 )
A young girl, on the threshold of her teen years, finds her life turning upside down, when she is accompanied by an unlikely friend.
info
Movie: My Girl 2 ( 1994 )
Vada Sultenfuss must go to LA to stay with her Uncle Phil to do some research on her mother's life, but finds much more.
info
Movie: You Don't Know Jack ( 2010 )
Dr. Jack Kevorkian (1928 - 2011 ) in the 1990s, when he defies Michigan law assisting the suicide of terminally-ill persons. Support comes from his sister, a lab tech, the Hemlock Society president, and a lawyer. The child of survivors of the Armenian genocide interviews applicants: his sister video tapes them. He assembles a device allowing a person to initiate a three-chemical intravenous drip. The local D.A., the governor, and the Legislature respond. In court scenes, Kevorkian is sometimes antic. He's single-minded about giving dying individuals the right to determine how their lives will end. He wants the Supreme Court to rule. He picks a fight he can't win: is it hubris or heroism?
info
TV Show: Polseres Vermelles ( 2011 )
info
Movie: Marvin's Room ( 1997 )
After seventeen years, a fiercely independent woman and her rebellious son return home and together they turn the family she left behind upside down.
info
Movie: Knockin' on Heaven's Door ( 1997 )
Two young men, Martin and Rudi, both suffering from terminal cancer, get to know each other in a hospital room. They drown their desperation in Tequila and decide to take one last trip to the sea. Drunk and still in pajamas they steal the first fancy car they find, a 60's Mercedes convertible. The car happens to belong to a bunch of gangsters, which immediately start to chase it, since it contains more than the pistol Martin finds in the glove box.
info
Movie: Cool Kids Don't Cry ( 2012 )
Akkie is a pretty schoolgirl who is good at soccer and doesn't let boys mess with her, until she is diagnosed with leukemia and has to start her battle to stay alive.
info
TV Show: It's a Sin ( 2021 )
Ritchie, Roscoe and Colin are young lads, strangers at first, leaving home at 18 and heading off to London in 1981 with hope and ambition and joy… and walking straight into a plague that most of the world ignores. Year by year, episode by episode, their lives change, as the mystery of a new virus starts as a rumour, then a threat, then a terror, and then something that binds them together in the fight.It's the story of their friends, lovers and families too, especially Jill, the girl who loves them and helps them, and galvanises them in the battles to come. Together they will endure the horror of the epidemic, the pain of rejection and the prejudices that gay men faced throughout the decade.
info
TV Show: The Big C ( 2010 )
The Big C follows Minneapolis Westhill High School teacher Cathy Jamison – a reserved, suburban wife and mother – who is diagnosed with melanoma. The realization of this forces her to really begin to live for the first time in her adult life. At first she chooses to keep her diagnosis from her family, behaving in ways they find puzzling and increasingly bizarre. She finds new freedom to express herself. As the show progresses, Cathy allows her family and some new friends to support her as she copes with her terminal prognosis, and finds both humor and pathos in the many idiosyncratic relationships in her life.
info
Movie: The Theory of Flight ( 1999 )
Two miserable people find happiness together: a man dreaming of flying, and a woman dreaming of living.
info
Movie: Griffin & Phoenix ( 2007 )
Two people face a seemingly-insurmountable obstacle that might stand between them and a last chance at love.
info
TV Show: Angels in America ( 2003 )
Al Pacino, Meryl Streep and Emma Thompson lead an all-star cast in an epic movie event directed Mike Nichols and screenplay by Tony Kushner based on his Pulitzer Prize-winning play: Angels in America.
info
Movie: Dallas Buyers Club ( 2013 )
In 1985 Dallas, electrician and hustler Ron Woodroof works around the system to help AIDS patients get the medication they need after he is diagnosed with the disease.
info
Movie: The Broken Circle Breakdown ( 2012 )
Elise and Didier fall in love at first sight, in spite of their differences. He talks, she listens. He's a romantic atheist, she's a religious realist. When their daughter becomes seriously ill, their love is put on trial.
info
Movie: Ikiru ( 1952 )
A bureaucrat tries to find a meaning in his life after he discovers he has terminal cancer.
info
Movie: Paddleton ( 2019 )
An unlikely friendship between two misfit neighbors becomes an unexpectedly emotional journey when the younger man is diagnosed with terminal cancer.
info
Movie: Biutiful ( 2011 )
A man dying of cancer tries his best to leave the world on his own terms.
info
Movie: A Monster Calls ( 2016 )
A boy seeks the help of a tree monster to cope with his single mother's terminal illness.
info
Movie: 5 to 7 ( 2015 )
An aspiring novelist enters into a relationship with a woman, though there's just one catch: She's married and the couple can only meet between the hours of 5 and 7 each evening.
info
Movie: The Fountain ( 2006 )
As a modern-day scientist, Tommy is struggling with mortality, desperately searching for the medical breakthrough that will save the life of his cancer-stricken wife, Izzi.
info
Movie: The Professor ( 2019 )
After learning about his terminal diagnosis, a college professor decides to live his life to the fullest by drinking, smoking and expressing real thoughts for the people around him. While going through the stages, he come to terms with the great truth of his life as he mends broken relationships, embraces the people in his life and learns to ignite his inner good spirit.
info
Movie: $50K and a Call Girl: A Love Story ( 2014 )
When Ross is diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and given six weeks to live, his newly engaged older brother Seth offers to spend his $50,000 wedding fund on a final trip of a lifetime. Their plans are complicated when Ross invites a call girl to join the group and Seth's uptight fiancée insists on tagging along. This raucous road trip comedy features hip-hop star Asher Roth.
info
Movie: Tombstone ( 1993 )
A successful lawman's plans to retire anonymously in Tombstone, Arizona are disrupted by the kind of outlaws he was famous for eliminating.
info
TV Show: Doom at Your Service ( 2021 )
Dong Kyung is an editor for a web novel company. Myul Mang, suddenly appears in her ordinary life. She makes a 100 day contract with Myul Mang, risking her life and her love.
info
Movie: The Last Song ( 2010 )
A rebellious girl is sent to a Southern beach town for the summer to stay with her father. Through their mutual love of music, the estranged duo learn to reconnect.
info
TV Show: Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist ( 2020 )
Innovative musical dramedy about a whip-smart but socially awkward girl in her late 20's who is suddenly able to hear the innermost thoughts of people around her as songs and even big musical numbers that they perform just for her. With this new ability at her disposal, she is able to use her ‘gift' to not only help herself understand people in her life, but also to help others around her.
info
TV Show: Chasing Life ( 2014 )
April is a smart, charismatic and quick witted twenty-something aspiring journalist. When not pursuing the latest scoop, April tries to balance her ambitious career with her family, which includes her widowed mom Sara rebellious little sister Brenna and her grandmother We meet April at a pivotal moment in her life: she's landed a fantastic opportunity to impress her hard-nosed Boston newspaper editor and an office romance with her super-sexy co-worker Dominic is just beginning to blossom. In an unexpected twist of fate, April lands in the hospital where her estranged uncle, George works as an oncologist, and she learns the devastating news that she has cancer. The series follows April through her journey in the face of this daunting revelation, during a time in her life when the challenges of finding love and success would be enough to keep any girl occupied. But April is determined to fight and refuses to give up her dreams and goals. Along the way, she'll find new reserves of strength and passion within and discover that facing death may really be the only way to truly live.
info
info
TV Show: Giri/Haji ( 2019 )
A Tokyo detective travels to London to look for his long lost younger brother, now involved with the Yakuza and wanted for the murder of a Japanese businessman. With the help of a young Japanese-British hustler who helps the detective navigate London, the mystery continues to unravel. His family's honour, and the fragile peace between the warring gangs back in Tokyo, is at stake.
info
TV Show: One Mississippi ( 2015 )
One Mississippi is a dark comedy inspired by comedian Tig Notaro's life. Tig returns to her hometown in Mississippi, where she contends with the death of her mother and her own mortality as she embarks on a painful yet hilarious journey that unearths uncomfortable truths about her family and her self.
info
TV Show: Temple ( 2019 )
Daniel Milton is a surgeon who, driven by personal tragedy, operates an illegal clinic deep below London's Temple tube station for those who either wish to remain outside the system, or for those desperate enough to seek treatment unavailable through conventional means. Aided by disgruntled underground worker Lee and guilt-ridden medical researcher Anna, Daniel's dangerous and unpredictable clientele test his morality to the limit. But if it means he can save the person he loves, it will all be worth it.
info
TV Show: Highway to Heaven ( 1984 )
Jonathan Smith is an angel sent down to earth "on probation". Jonathan and friend Mark Gordon are given "assignments" by "The Boss" (God) where they are required to use their humanity (and sometimes a little bit of "The Stuff") in order to help various troubled souls to overcome their problems. Examples of these problems include families dealing with sick loved ones; wealthy and greedy businessmen being encouraged to use their wealth for good; and discouraging prejudice in regards to people of different ethnicitys, appearances, or socioeconomic backgrounds or who have disabilities. While dealing with these situations with sensitivity, Highway to Heaven also used humor – particularly between Jonathan and Mark.
info
TV Show: Clannad ( 2007 )
Okazaki Tomova is a third-year student at a high school somewhere in Japan, and does not take his studies seriously. Always late for class, he is seen as a delinquent by the rest of his classmates who are busy preparing for their college entrance examinations. Needless to say, he does not have too many close friends.

Tomoya does not seem to mind though — until one day he meets a girl, Furukawa Nagisa, who is left alone without friends at school because everybody she knew already graduated. "What a clumsy girl", he thinks at first. But talking to her feels natural and so, while helping her, he meets a few other girls from his school. Although he does not care much about them at first, he soon opens his heart as they get to know each other better.(Source AniDB)
info
TV Show: Sick Note ( 2017 )
Sick Note is the story of Daniel Glass, a compulsive liar, who's stuck in a failing relationship and a dead-end job under the thumb of his irrepressible boss Kenny West. When he's diagnosed with cancer, everyone starts to treat him better, suddenly giving him a new lust for life. But then he finds out he was misdiagnosed by the most incompetent oncologist on Earth, Dr Ian Glennis. When he decides to keep the new information to himself, the lie spirals out of control and both Daniel and Dr Glennis must attempt to prevent the truth from getting out.
info
Movie: Proof ( 2005 )
The daughter of a brilliant but mentally disturbed mathematician, recently deceased, tries to come to grips with her possible inheritance: his insanity. Complicating matters are one of her father's ex-students, who wants to search through his papers, and her estranged sister, who shows up to help settle his affairs.
info
TV Show: Atypical ( 2017 )
Atypical is a coming of age story that follows Sam, an 18-year-old on the autistic spectrum as he searches for love and independence. While Sam is on his funny yet emotional journey of self-discovery, the rest of his family must grapple with change in their own lives as they all struggle with the central theme: what does it really mean to be normal?
info
Movie: Cries & Whispers ( 1973 )
When a woman dying of cancer in early twentieth-century Sweden is visited by her two sisters, long-repressed feelings between the siblings rise to the surface.
info
Movie: The Farewell ( 2019 )
A headstrong Chinese-American woman returns to China when her beloved grandmother is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Billi struggles with her family's decision to keep grandma in the dark about her own illness as they all stage an impromptu wedding to see grandma one last time.
info
Movie: The Savages ( 2008 )
A sister and brother face the realities of familial responsibility as they begin to care for their ailing father.
info
Movie: Away from Her ( 2007 )
A man coping with the institutionalization of his wife because of Alzheimer's disease faces an epiphany when she transfers her affections to another man, Aubrey, a wheelchair-bound mute who also is a patient at the nursing home.
info
Movie: Magnolia ( 1999 )
An epic mosaic of interrelated characters in search of love, forgiveness, and meaning in the San Fernando Valley.
info
Movie: An Early Frost ( 1985 )
A young lawyer hasn't told his parents about his homosexuality. Now he must tell them--at a time when the diagnosis was still a death sentence--that he has AIDS.
info
Movie: Hawks ( 1989 )
Two terminally ill patients in a hospital yearn for relief from their predicament. With little or no friends, they form an uneasy alliance and plot an escape for one last wild time.
info
Movie: End Game ( 2018 )
Filmed and edited in intimate vérité style, this movie follows visionary medical practitioners who are working on the cutting edge of life and death and are dedicated to changing our thinking about both.
info
Movie: Defining Hope ( 2017 )
We aren't dying the way we used to. We have ventilators, dialysis machines, ICUs-technologies that can "fix" us and keep our bodies alive-which have radically changed how we make medical ...
info
Movie: Griefwalker ( 2008 )
GRIEFWALKER is an extraordinary portrait of Harvard-trained theologian Stephen Jenkinson, who teaches that death empowers us to live and that we must know grief well in order to appreciate our own lives. Many may find Jenkinson's belief that our deaths are not something to be denied or avoided but 'befriended' as challenging; he points out that not every culture fears...Read all
info
Movie: Extremis ( 2016 )
Witness the wrenching emotions that accompany end-of-life decisions as doctors, patients and families in a hospital ICU face harrowing choices.