Emergence of hetero‐vancomycin‐intermediate Staphylococcus aureus (hVISA) in Sydney

It is likely that many did not have a good death. In hospitals the pervasive ethos of healing and curing is not conducive to confronting death. Investigations and invasive procedures continue when palliative care is actually long overdue, and technology stubbornly defies death. When death is imminent, feelings of helplessness, guilt or failure are allayed by hiding reality behind closed curtains or abandoning the dying patient to a side room.