Palliative Care ... Dealing with Death

This transit, from which the fallout will continue for some time, was a safe time for those who wanted to get off the wheel to do so.

"Die" is the medical term for this.

At this difficult time of year, the Dallas Morning News has chosen to focus on a difficult subject -- death and dying.

Palliative care.

The huge spread is full of language like

The Angel of Death
At the edge of life
Dealing with the "D-word"
Comfort, pain emerge from hard truths
Palliative goal is easing end of life
Making the process less painful
Helping loved ones understand their choices
When medical treatment would do more harm than good

And a very special nurse named Min Patel, who works both sides of the desk, as it were. The patients and their families on one side, and the doctors on the other. For a doctor's job is to keep a patient alive and well, is it not? I have coached doctors. I understand.

And Dr. Fine who is a national expert on end-of-life lessons, as the head of Baylor Hospital's ethics committee.

Dr. Fine says he looks constantly for teaching moments about the "D-word." He talks about the elephant in every hospital room: Nobody comes to a hospital to die. When young doctors were asked how they felt about saying the D-word, they said they felt like a failure.

I'm glad there are programs now to help younger doctors learn to handle the emotions around the dying of one of their patients, when their medical knowledge, big hearts, brilliant minds, and the latest technology can no longer help, and the patient moves into Other Hands.

Somewhere in the article was a phrase I will always remember, as a coach, consultant, psychic, astrologer ... and as a human being.

It was this:
Death is a spiritual event, not a medical failure.