The Pandemic Is Changing How We Die—And Not Just for COVID-19 Patients
Joanna Sharpless is a palliative-care physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centern George’s eighth day alone in the ICU, his doctors told him he had months to live. With his family listening by phone, the doctors offered two options: he could continue to receive intensive hospital care, with a small chance of getting home before his next medical crisis. Or he could go home with hospice, focusing on comfort and the people he loved.
Though George didn’t have COVID-19, the pandemic made his decision even more excruciating. In an effort to stop the virus, George’s hospital, like others, had enacted policies banning visitors. If George chose the hospital path, it would be weeks before he could see his family in person. Hospitals today face an impossible predicament regarding visitors for terminally ill patients. On one hand, a visitor might spread the virus within the hospital or become exposed and bring it home. On the other, depriving people of the chance to make life-and-death decisions and say goodbye in person is cruel and may even influence the choices they make.Many hospitals seek to walk this line by allowing visitors for dying patients, with stringent restrictions.
Since George’s time was limited, he and his family decided he should come home so they could be together. But hours before he was to leave, his blood pressure dropped. His doctors called his wife and told her he was actively dying. She raced toward the hospital, but George died before she arrived. She was alone when she learned of his death. She wiped tears from above her mask as she visited her husband’s body. Then she drove herself home.
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