Jón Kolbeinn on Nostr: I had to deliver bad news to someone this morning. Delivering bad news is one of ...

I had to deliver bad news to someone this morning.

Delivering bad news is one of medicine's hardest duties. Every instinct pulls you toward softening the blow.
Honesty, however painful, is the only ethical path. It's what people deserve.
What stays with me is not the delivering, but the receiving of the news. I have sat with someone absorbing news that may mark the beginning of the end of their lives, and see someting remarkable happen.
In their most vulnerable state, when their future takes a rapid turn, something surfaces which I can only describe as quiet dignity or grace.

This leaves me with a renewed sense of what human beings are capable of when faced with death.
It's humbling, and it is never easy. It will always be one of the most profound privileges of this work.

I do however feel drained.