{"id":182,"date":"2016-04-24T13:09:34","date_gmt":"2016-04-24T17:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/?p=182"},"modified":"2016-07-01T12:46:58","modified_gmt":"2016-07-01T16:46:58","slug":"love-and-dying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/love-and-dying\/","title":{"rendered":"Love and Dying"},"content":{"rendered":"

My patient is a wonderful Indian Hindi woman who is passionate about her culture, her faith, and her family. She is extremely honest \u2013 some could even say she is hard to please. The relationship I had with her brought about something special. By the third or fourth visit she smiled when she saw me walk in. After a few months, she would constantly remind me that she loves and appreciates me, which is something I will never forget.
\nThe instance that made the largest impact on me was when she had a harsh cold, and was in the worst condition I had ever seen her in. I just held her hand for an hour as she struggled to breathe, slipping into and out of sleep. I thought\u2026 that\u2019s it. She\u2019s going to die soon. My heart swelled with emotion as I held her hand and felt her grip tighten and loosen repeatedly. It was almost as if death was trying to decide whether or not to take her. However, after two weeks, she recovered and was back in her wheelchair watching Indian TV.
\nFrom the experiences I\u2019ve had over the past few months, I\u2019ve learned a lot. I\u2019ve learned that each patient is different. Each patient\u2019s situation is different. But difference is what makes true relationships beautiful. Experiencing the world of hospice care and being a part of my patient\u2019s dying process, even if minimally, has affected me deeply by showing me the importance of the well-being and comfort of a dying patient \u2013 physically, emotionally, and spiritually. It has taught me the importance of relationships. By reminiscing about memories and stories of her family and friends, she showed me what life is about \u2013 sharing love with one another. Despite her hardened exterior, which many people took to be rudeness, I saw so much love in her. I have learned that these initial perceptions and stereotypes should not define a patient\u2019s worth and value as human beings. By getting to know her and finding a deep connection, I was able to see her as a person with the same fears and emotions when facing death as any other. She cried to me once about her loneliness and fear of abandonment, exposing to me her pure humanity.
\nThe most important thing I have learned is that death is something to be embraced. This has influenced my future career by giving me the clinical tools to connect with patients from every walk of life. Visiting my patient allowed me to practice virtue and to foster love and trust every day. I recently read a book written by Daniel Sulmasy entitled, The Rebirth of the Clinic<\/em>. In it, he says that all human beings desire unconditional love. That is why end-of-life care is so difficult. We must provide love so that when they leave this earth, it is a good death. I have learned that to be in the medical profession, especially in end-of-life care, one must be abundantly compassionate and self-effacing. And for this reason, I am incredibly thankful for the experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My patient is a wonderful Indian Hindi woman who is passionate about her culture, her faith, and her family. She is extremely honest \u2013 some could even say she is hard to please. The relationship I had with her brought about something special. By the third or fourth visit she smiled when she saw me … Continue reading “Love and Dying”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"school":[10],"program_year":[11],"class_list":["post-182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hospice","school-villanova","program_year-11"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":312,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182\/revisions\/312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182"},{"taxonomy":"school","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/school?post=182"},{"taxonomy":"program_year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program_year?post=182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}