ATTENDED
to the EMOTIONAL NEEDS
of the FAMILY
"And [my siblings]
felt like that the doctors did not honor, did not value the
life, you know. That somehow in their discussion of, "Maybe
it's time to let her go," it was so, I don't know, distant
or something… But, I think they were feelin' so much pain,
you know, that they needed somebody to be there with them, and
[the doctors] weren't. ….I would have loved if a doctor
or anybody could have put their arms around all of us and said,
"This has got to be the hardest thing you've ever done."
But, forty years ago in a small town, the way I grew up, yeah
a doctor might have done that. But I can't IMAGINE… I think
there is not generally an emotional connection with patients
the way there used to be when I was growin' up. And I think
that's a shame. And I think, you know, I think hospice from
what I hear is just a great thing. But that's what we're havin'
to kind of re-create institutionally what should be a natural
human reaction to people in pain losing somebody."
-daughter
of a woman in her 80s with kidney failure
