Death and Dying

Last time in PNG, I learned a lot about death and dying. I saw a handful of kids die of preventable things like diarrhea, malnutrition, prematurity. Pretty sad stuff. I managed to escape the sad kind of death to a large extent back in the States, but here it has reared its ugly head already.

You may be wondering what I mean by the "sad kind" of death. Well, I don't really consider death a sad thing when it is better than the life being lived. Folks who work in health care have a good understanding of this, I think. Sometimes, we just do so much only to extend pain and suffering. One of my attendings back home calls it "Taking away their ticket out of this world." What is sad to me is folks, especially kids, dying or suffering when it just doesn't have to be that way.

At any rate, yesterday I saw a lady who was pregnant, just a few weeks from her due date. Only problem was, she hadn't felt the baby move... for two weeks (reported durations of time are not always too accurate, but she was pretty believable). At this point, you pretty much know what is going on, but don't want to believe it. So, I took her into the ultrasound room and began searching in vain for a heartbeat. Nothing. No movement at all. Cranial bones overlapping a bit. Definitely not good. Hoping that I had become totally incompetent, I asked one of the other docs to have a look and speak with this poor woman, since my Pidgin is still not up to the task of such a delicate subject. Alas, still no heartbeat. Dr Susan talked with her about waiting for labor vs inducing now, and she decided to wait. We prayed together and sent her on her way with some Tylenol for the labor pains that would soon be coming.

Tonight, since I am on call, I was clearing some patients from the ER when a very sick gentleman I had seen earlier in the day coded (stopped breathing) and died. Since I was the only one around this time, I asked a nurse to translate for me as I prayed for the man's family.

As a doc, I guess I should be used to death and dying. I've watched my mom, kids, adults, sick people, and (relatively) healthy people all die in front of me. Still, when it's something unexpected or it just doesn't seem right, it gets to me a bit. If I've spent any amount of time with the patient's family, it gets to me a lot. In the movie Patch Adams, the head of the med school says essentially that they would beat the humanity out of the students and make them something better: doctors. Well, I guess Ohio State didn't do such a great job of that. In spite of the occasional heart ache, think I'm glad they didn't.