Patients' rights advocate dies

Judi Chamberlin, who was hospitalized against her will for depression four decades ago and championed patients' rights ever since, died on Saturday the way she wanted -- at home, in Arlington, with family.

The 65-year-old Brooklyn, N.Y. native authored a seminal book touting patient control in mental health treatment, helped mobilize a movement and won a following.

Chamberlin spent much of her life advocating for the rights of the mentally ill, but in the last year she took on another cause -- end of life care. Suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, an incurable lung disorder, Chamberlin battled her health insurance company for the right to die at home.

In the process, she started a blog, Life as a Hospice Patient, that attracted quite a following.

"I am sitting at the computer, and the comments on the blog, and the emails, it's just hitting me, even more powerfully, the number -- the  depth and breadth  -- of people she affected," her long-time companion, Marty Federman said in a phone interview today.

Federman said that shortly before her death, Chamberlin was talking about culling her blog to focus on the essence of her most recent fight -- end-of-life care -- and publish that material because, he said, she was angry that such care got short-shrift in the national health reform debate.

Federman said he intends to see that project through.