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When our patients die
Author(s) -
Ryan Christopher J
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2001.tb143709.x
Subject(s) - worry , art , emergency department , medicine , art history , psychology , nursing , psychiatry , anxiety
IT WAS A LONG TIME AGO now. I had been a doctor but three days. Mrs Gilmore (not her real name) had been brought to the emergency department with chest pain. As I took her history, her voice was soft, but her eyes were frightened. When I had finished, I clasped her aged hand comfortingly. “Don't worry”, I said quietly, “It'll be alright”. At that moment the light left her eyes. The monitor called the arrest, and white coats descended upon her like carrion birds to beat upon her lifeless chest. When it was all over, when it was all written up, I needed a moment and ambled, dazed, to the tearoom to sit.