PRIME - Questions, Answers and Peace

Questions, Answers & Peace

I have been a consultant in palliative medicine for the last twenty years in various hospices in England. Many people think that working with patients suffering from advanced, progressive and uniformly fatal conditions would be depressing.

But let me share a memorable patient with you.

‘Vera’ was a very senior nurse. Taken ill on holiday, she was found to have a large aggressive brain tumour. She underwent a de-bulking operation but postoperatively developed bilateral deep vein thromboses and a pulmonary embolus. Five days post-op, and exceedingly ill, she was transferred from the busy, noisy neurosurgical ward to the hospice for peace and symptom management.

She had five questions for me when she surfaced from semi-coma:

Doctor, what is wrong with me?
Doctor, can it be cured?
Then what are the tablets for?
How long have I got?
What will the end be like?

The answer to the last question was what mattered to her. But she could not have asked that one if I had not been truthful with the first and second!

I’ve never forgotten ‘Vera’. A week after the above conversation, and a day after her death, her sister told me how ‘Vera’ had spoken to her about the ‘place of peace’ she had found when her spiritual needs, too, had been satisfied.

No. Palliative Care brings the wonderful privilege of communication and spiritual care as an integral part of good medicine, and is immensely satisfying.

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