Learn to see beauty in death

We physicians stand witness to countless tragedies in our careers. At some point, as we stand by the bedside of a dying patient, comfort a heartbroken relative or officially call a death. We learn that love and loss, sorrow and joy are intertwined. They depend upon each other. They are two sides of the same coin. Dealing with loss after loss, we learn to look for the beauty in all of it. Sometimes, we have to look really, really closely to find it. I first learned this in residency as I stood at the bedside of one of my patients as she died. I had seen many die before her, but her death stirred something deep inside me. She was an infant, not quite a year of age. She had been born with a congenital problem with her heart that progressively worsened through her short life. Her parents were young yet devoted caregivers. They stayed by her side through each of her long and frequent hospitalizations. She may have gone home for a total of two or three months, staggered in days or weeks here and there. Her brief stays at home were often interrupted by setbacks, surgeries, doctor visits, drips, tubes, needles and the eventual next admission. Strange adults flowed into and out of her rooms — attending physicians, specialists, residents, nurses and therapists in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), the medical floor, the radiology suite, the emergency room, the PICU again. Continue reading ... Your patients are rating you online: How to...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Physician Critical Care Hospital-Based Medicine Source Type: blogs