Dancing with Broken Bones
Poverty, Race, and Spirit-filled Dying in the Inner City

Dancing with Broken Bones gives voice and face to a vulnerable and disempowered population whose stories often remain untold: the urban dying poor. Drawing on complex issues surrounding poverty, class, and race, Moller illuminates the unique sufferings that often remain unknown and hidden within a culture of broad invisibility. He demonstrates how a complex array of factors, such as mistrust of physicians, regrettable indignities in care, and inadequate communication among providers, patients, and families, shape the experience of the dying poor in the inner city. This book challenges readers to look at reality in a different way. Demystifying stereotypes that surround poverty, Moller illuminates how faith, remarkable optimism, and an unassailable spirit provide strength and courage to the dying poor. Dancing with Broken Bones serves as a rallying call for compassionate individuals everywhere to understand and respond to the needs of the especially vulnerable, yet inspiring, people who comprise the world of the inner city dying poor.

Introduction: Revisiting Dancing with Broken Bones. Chapter 1. Crossing the Tracks. Chapter 2. Dying Poor: An Invisible World. Chapter 3. Dying the Public Hospital System: Institutional Arrangements and Provider Perspectives. Chapter 4. Courage Through Suffering: Snapshots of the Dying Poor. Chapter 5. Triumph and Faith Through Harsh Reality and Personal Tragedy: Lucille Angel. Chapter 6. Life on the Brink: Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler. Chapter 7. A Conclusion: Conscious Listening, Mindful Presence-A Lesson Learned. Epilogue. An Urban Thoreau.

David Wendell Moller is Chair of the Department of Bioethics at Kansas City University if Medicine and Biosciences. Previously, he served as Director of Human Values in Medicine at Saint Luke's Hospital of Kansas City, and he has held academic positions at the University of Missouri - Kansas City School of Medicine, Indiana University, and Fort Hays State University. Moller has lectured extensively on the human encounter with mortality, and has authored several books that explore the intersection of cutlure, society, and the experience of dying.