i can honestly tell anybody that one of the saddest things a doctor can have the misfortune of witnessing is not the patient expressing wishes of dying when everything seems to go belly up and a cure is pretty out of the question...
it is having a patient look you in the eye while struggling to speak - breathe even - because his lungs are clogged up with fluid and infection, and after being told that if he were to have an NGT tube inserted he would never be able to eat or drink anything normally ever again, and that the doctors are dehydrating him because "every bit of fluid or food we give you is going to your lungs"...
and him saying, "give me a chance."
let this day be remembered not because of all the things that have gone wrong, but because of the strength and will to live of one of the most inspiring patients i have ever met.
