Why is it so difficult to say?
. . . one of the reasons why we eschew the “D” word when talking to patients about their prognosis is to avoid upsetting them with the use of such blunt terms since they are already in distress as it is. Another explanation is that we doctors find it awkward or unpleasant to bring up such bad news, which the author believes is a reflection on the perverted way our society identifies death as a distasteful subject, one that is almost taboo and should be identified with euphemisms.
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{ 2 comments }
The worst i have ever heard happened while I was a patient at one of the BIG well known hospitals. I was in a room with a lady who was maybe mid 50s. She had came in for a stress test which she failed horribly, and was immediately admitted. She had been there for about a week having various tests, but not getting much info from any of the doctors.
One day, one of the doctors came in and told her they had very important information but they felt her family members should also be present, for a metting they wanted to have with her. The meeting was set up for the next day. All her family was there and waited and waited and waited and no one came to talk to them. They finally all left and went home, some driving even 200 miles to get there.
The next morning one of her doctors came in and offered a very lame excuse of why none of them had showed up teh day before and them he proceeded to tell her (while she was all alone) how she had only a very “short amt. of time left”…He was so cold in his delivery, that I laid in my bed and cried for this woman who I didn’t even know. That has been over 15 years ago but I have never gotten over it.
There is also the problem of not being comfortable with our own mortality.
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