“But do not say he was murdered or he was killed. Yes, I know that he was, but that is not what you say.”
Why else don’t you say it? Because that makes the victim just another statistic. Not something to care about.
@gouf78 if I could like your post several dozen times I would. I think you are exactly right.
saintfan–Thanks.
Make a new thread–it deserves one.
I think your comments about men vs women doctors, white coats, perceived authority etc. are very valid.
Not only men vs women scenarios but situations as to who the “doctor” really is.
The ER doc in charge of everybody who is someone you may never meet?
The physician’s assistant assigned to you? The nurse who actually is working on you?
Where it comes down to “who ya gonna call?” And it’s not Dr “so and so” or “Ghost Busters” but “ummm…don’t know.”?
When my SIL died from complications of childbirth shortly after her emergency delivery, the doctors didn’t need to say a word. They just came out into the waiting room after working to save her for three hours, and everyone knew she was gone. Sometimes compassion is conveyed in body language, but when the message has to be said, I’d like to think it is done the way this writer does it!
Just read the piece. Incredibly moving and powerful. Made me tear up.
Wish I hadn’t read all these comments nitpicking and overanalyzing elements like the white coat, etc. 8-|
Sometimes I don’t like CC.
I have witnessed doctors giving this kind of news many times. One really stands out in my mind as being really really crappy. The news was delivered by a trauma resident via telephone, and she just couldn’t have done it any worse, imo. You don’t tell a mother her daughter has died like that.
I’ve never forgotten that doctor and have from time to time wondered if she ever got better at it.
That information should never be delivered by phone.
^^^Well, it involved a young woman visiting Dallas from another country for a seminar. Mom was back home in the foreign country. And the doc wanted her permission to donate her daughter’s organs (she was brain dead, but on mechanical and chemical support). The whole thing was awful.
OK then I understand why she had to call the mother in her home country.
My sister and her husband got the news over the phone, but it was because their son was in a different state. Still, I cannot imagine.