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leonard h calabrese's avatar

This commentary reflects the values of slow medicine ' which Abraham Verghese says calls for prioritizing wisdom over data at critical moments and is at the core of providing excellent care and more importantly caring. Knowing our patients is vital at times of critical medical decision making because in the end all illness is intensely personal. This skill and capacity can and must be taught in our med schools and training programs, role modeled by those who do it well and strengthened through reflective practice. bravo Dr Cifu

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Irene The Insomniac's avatar

I've lost both my parents, both in their 90's. My father died in hospital, BC (before covid) so I was able to be with him round the clock his last few days. Nurses/PSWs were amazingly kind and respectful. My mother passed more recently and had been in hospital due to bleeding issues (blood thinners, heart/kidney failure). The docs this time were all pushing for further tests regarding her kidney function when all she wanted was to return to her retirement home. They couldn't see the 96 year old woman, they could only see the kidney test results and wanted to "fix" them. She had mild dementia (mainly short term memory loss) but I couldn't be there with her due to my vaccine status, and even if I could I would have had to book a 1 hour appointment, the day before, be fully gowned/gloved/masked/visored to be allowed in. So much for the kindness and humanity. Thankfully she did get home and her decline was rapid with minimal suffering at the end, thanks again to the kindness of her family doc and the nurses/PSWs at her home.

Medicine needs a heart and a soul. They have been declining over the last couple of decades but are nearly completely gone in the past 2.5 years. I have numerous patients whose primary care physician refused to see them in person unless they were fully jabbed (worst form of coercion) or who "fired" them from their practice. Others, who are elderly and have multiple problems (no doubt interconnected) are allowed only 1-2 problems per visit. That's not healthcare, that's rationed sick maintenance. We have a lot to do to bring the humanity back to health care.

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