{"id":40173,"date":"2017-09-29T11:02:52","date_gmt":"2017-09-29T10:02:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?p=40173"},"modified":"2017-09-28T11:03:24","modified_gmt":"2017-09-28T10:03:24","slug":"hannah-wilson-first-patient-last-breathe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2017\/09\/29\/hannah-wilson-first-patient-last-breathe\/","title":{"rendered":"Hannah Wilson: First patient, last breathe"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I can pinpoint the exact moment that I truly understood what it meant to be a doctor. It was 7:45 am on a Saturday morning and I had just arrived for the morning handover. I was working the weekend in my old department as a locum, mainly for the clinical experience with trusted colleagues.<\/p>\n

I was handed over the task of certifying a death, something that I had previously observed but was yet to perform.\u00a0 As I walked to the patients\u2019 bay I went over the certifying death procedure in my head: what I would say, what I would do, and how I would document what I had carried out. It is only with hindsight that I realised the imagery I had created was of an elderly person, frail looking and in some ways almost expected to pass away. However, as I entered the ward, I could see from the look of the nurses that something was different.<\/p>\n

As I approached the bay and gathered the information I was struck by the name in the notes. The patient was a man I had met during my first week as a doctor. He had a complicated medical history compounded by severe learning difficulties but there had been a need for multiple surgeries. My heart sank as I realised the end had come far too soon for a patient whom I had come to know and care for. What happened next surprised me.<\/p>\n

As I entered the room I was overcome by a sudden feeling of relief. I hugged and held the mother of the patient. I felt I was able to offer genuine words of comfort to someone I had known in better days. Performing a somewhat impersonal task felt personal and warm and I think the family and I both took comfort in the fact that I didn\u2019t have to introduce myself or explain my role.<\/p>\n

I have since certified countless deaths at all hours of the day, and it has often been in front of families of patients I have never previously met.<\/p>\n

However, I will not forget how my first experiences of both death and locuming provided an important and irreplaceable lesson for me as a doctor: death is unpredictable and above prejudice; it is personal and it is a privilege for doctors to be present at the end of their patients\u2019 journeys.<\/p>\n

Hannah Wilson<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0is an academic doctor at Imperial College NHS Trust, London. Her interests are in education and training in medicine<\/em><\/p>\n

Competing interests<\/em><\/strong>: none declared\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I can pinpoint the exact moment that I truly understood what it meant to be a doctor. It was 7:45 am on a Saturday morning and I had just arrived for the morning handover. I was working the weekend in my old department as a locum, mainly for the clinical experience with trusted colleagues. I […]<\/p>\n

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