RT Journal
A1 Rousseau P
T1 TEn values reprised
JF Archives of Internal Medicine
JO Archives of Internal Medicine
YR 2012
FD August 13
VO 172
IS 15
SP 1178
OP 1178
DO 10.1001/archinternmed.2012.2521
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archinternmed.2012.2521
AB 
How death occurs and how it is managed by physicians—their presence or absence, their words said and unsaid—can dramatically affect the grief and bereavement of patients and family members. I still remember the physician's words to me: “Our hope is that she’ll go home, albeit with her arm amputated.” Pamela, the mother of my 2 daughters and a woman with whom I spent 30 years, lay dying, kidneys and heart failing, left arm and right hand gangrenous, petechiae painting her skin, eyes closed halfway to heaven, and she was going home after amputation of her arm? Really? Oh how me and my 2 daughters wanted to believe that, we really did. Mom was coming home, some semblance of normalcy was returning. But she did not come home—she was dead within 72 hours. I should have known, but patients and families analyze words, and that is what I did, I analyzed 12 words that resonated with my heart: “Our hope is that she’ll go home, albeit with her arm amputated.”