Death in the ICU: Edmonton doctor recounts calling woman to share her mom’s dying moments
Global News
'She was just so insistent that she needed to look good when she died. I found that so dignified,' Dr. Neeja Bakshi said.
It’s a scenario that has played out countless times in intensive care units around the world: a health-care worker shepherding a gravely ill COVID-19 patient through their final moments while family members watch on via a mobile device.
“We hear numbers of 20 deaths per day, 30 deaths per day and it gets really easy to get numb to those numbers,” Dr. Neeja Bakshi said in an interview with Global News.
In an effort to bring some humanity back to the staggering number of deaths in Alberta, the Edmonton doctor who works on the internal medicine ward at the Royal Alexandra Hospital recounted sitting with a 75-year-old woman as she died.
“Hi Jane. This is Dr. Bakshi calling from Edmonton. I am not sure if you’re aware, but your mom Anne was admitted to the COVID ward about 2 hours ago,” Bakshi wrote on Twitter. (Scroll down to see more tweets)
The names in her story are fictional to protect the family’s privacy.
“Deafening silence….followed by a chilling shriek…. tears… gasping for air trying to form words… phone clicks. Five minutes pass, and I call again,” Bakshi wrote.
“Through her tears, Jane responds: Yes. I’m so sorry for hanging up on you. I was shocked. I didn’t even know she wasn’t well, I spoke to my mom two days ago.
Dr. Bakshi went to explain how the hospital arranged for an iPad to be brought in so the daughter could say goodbye to her mom. Before they called her daughter, the patient insisted on putting on lipstick.
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