On Death & Dying

I hadn't planned this topic, but my dear 90 y.o. grandmother just spent the last 2 weeks in hospice care after we unexpectedly learned she had terminal liver cancer. Six weeks prior, she'd gotten a clean bill of health and had perfectly normal bloodwork. Not only that, she astonished and confounded both her doctor and myself with her incredible endurance to the end. I would never have believed she would have lived 14 days - right after admission, she was running temps as high as 104 and clearly had fluid in her lungs. The decision to stop agressive measures was made in order to make her comfortable. So her I.V. was stopped and we prepared for her to pass from death into life.

The next morning though, she was dehydrated, her fever had broken, and she was amazingly alert and talking. Withdrawing agressive measures had improved her status! The cancer eventually caught up within a short time, but she remained comfortable and all her friends and family were able to visit. She passed away only four hours after a final pair of nieces arrived from Texas. None of us dreamed she would've still been here.

As a doctor, I am once again humbled by the magnificence of the human machine during the dying process. And I use "machine" deliberately, because machines are designed -- and although we are living bodies with a soul, our cells are tiny factories, our organs are rich industrial complexes, and our brains, corporate headquarters. Even facing death, the human body has a will to go on working like nothing else I've seen. No surprise, I guess, since God was the architect!

Blessings, Ronda