By Stuart Jeffries
Source: The Guardian
One of Hugh Montgomery's first patients, when he started working as an intensive-care doctor in 1989, was a 94-year-old woman who had suffered a heart attack while ballroom dancing. "She was a terrific, feisty old dear and we got on really well," recalls Montgomery. "But she ended up getting complications and falling unconscious. It was just a matter of time before she died.
"Every morning when I came into work, I would ask the nurses if she'd died, and they would say no. Then the thought crossed my mind that maybe she was hanging on for me.
"So I drew the curtains and said to her: 'I don't know if you can hear me, but if you're hanging on for me, you don't have to.' She stopped breathing right then. Maybe it was a coincidence, but I don't think so."
Montgomery relates the story because he is convinced that there is such a thing as the will to live and, by extension, a will to die. "I've seen this kind of thing happen so much in my work over the years that I don't believe it is a coincidence."
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY
No comments:
Post a Comment