Missed opportunities in providing palliative care for the urban poor: a case discussion

We report the case of a woman with chronic, unexplained symptoms admitted to a large urban hospital, whose clinical status declined rapidly without a definite underlying diagnosis, and who died 2 days after palliative extubation.

This case illustrates some of the challenges that patients, families, caregivers, and medical teams face in cases of serious life-limiting illness in the disenfranchised poor. Proposed solutions to these challenges include introduction to palliative care earlier in the course of illness and improved access to palliative care in medical safety-net settings.