Dealing with the dying Dealing with the dying In this article Kathy Myers, locum consultant in Palliative Care at the Mildmay Hospital, discusses the difficulties of caring for terminally ill patients, and offers a Christian response.
Death is one of the last great taboos in our society.
Surrounded by images of death in the media, modern western society can make it all too easy to insulate ourselves from the reality of death in our own lives and to be unprepared to deal with it 'in the flesh'. I chose to train in Palliative Medicine because of the complex and challenging issues that surround patients who are dying, and their families and professional carers. It's been my privilege to have been involved with many patients, largely with cancer or AIDS, who have been tackling these issues for themselves and who have allowed me to share in their experience. In this article, I would like to share a personal perspective on dealing with dying - both the nature of the challenges and ways that I've found it helpful to cope as a Christian doctor. Difficulties for dying patients and their families Each person's death has effects on those around them to varying degrees, whether they are family, friends or professional carers, like the ripples on a pond spreading outwards.