She held my hand tightly, almost desperately. “Take care of
me” she said. She was seventy one years old, and had just survived her first
heart attack. She was brought in with severe chest pain and we had thrombolysed
her and she had come out of the icu only yesterday. Not anticipating any
trouble, I had reassured her that she could be now shifted to a step down ward
and probably be discharged in a day or two.
This was a false prophecy, since a little later in the day, she
developed a second heart attack, was put on the ventilator back in the icu and
two days later she passed away. I still remember the desperation in that hand
clutch.
Did she know? Could we have known? One aspect of medicine that we are
not taught is serependity and the inclusion of “patient instinct”.
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