SHOSHANA UNGERLEIDER
I'm not here to
place a judgment
on someone's
decision, but I do
my very best to
explain to people
what that life
might look like, as
much as one can.
In medical school, there is very little taught about
death and dying. We are basically taught about
pathology, the study of disease. We learn how
to fight it, how to treat it using our vast array of
medical technology, which is fantastic. We've come
so far since the days of medicine where we would
just sit and watch our patients suffer and not be
able to do anything.
In my first year of residency I did several months
of ICU training, meaning more acute care. I
found myself feeling uncomfortable that we
12 | ART OF DYING
would admit frail, elderly patients who had very
advanced, really end-stage illness. Whether it
was cancer, or heart failure, or something else,
we'd admit them to the ICU and hook them
up and that's where they'd spend their last
moments of life. It was very obvious that we
weren't going to be able to cure their illness at
that point, or even turn around what was going
on. They were so ill. I thought to myself, "Why
is this happening. It doesn't seem like a place
where anyone would want to spend their last
few moments or days life." We had them away