Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Why not let her go gently into that good night?

  • Why not let her go gently into that good night?

    Victoria LimIowa City, Iowa, United States One early morning I was paged to see an eighty-five-year-old patient in the dialysis unit with low blood pressure. I learned that she had diabetes, hypertension, and diffuse atherosclerosis. In the past decade she had undergone four major surgeries for blocked arteries and had suffered two strokes. For the…