Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Do Not Resuscitate orders

  • The talk

    Akshay KhatriValhalla, New York, United States I walked into the emergency department with a sense of trepidation. The patient I was evaluating was Mrs. G, a woman whom I had cared for in the hospital a few months earlier. Now she was back from the nursing home with more shortness of breath. Having received a…

  • An act of cowardice

    Michael ShenIndianapolis, Indiana, United States In autumn, the leaves turn yellow and die. The cirrhotics in the unit do the same. Their path already charted, their lives like leaves in the wind, we carried them as long as we could. We poked and drained and filled, knowing that nothing would change the inevitable. Like leaves,…