(Snippets from the frontline)
Cradling the heart
I met him when he went on Medicare over 30 years ago having raised 3 kids as a single dad. With a Brooklyn accent, he always spoke of his children as if they still lived at home, continuing to guide them in life with their careers and family.
Reaching his nineties, the debilities of life set in including a mild loss of memory, and the physical betrayal of mobility. His daughter said “it was like watching a knight slowly losing his gleam.”
House calls kept him in a familiar environment, and his two daughters and son would take turns vacuuming, washing clothes and dishes, and keeping his home clean. On occasion when he was ill and weak, they would even carry him to the bathroom.
He came to the hospital one evening via paramedics, unconscious, and not responding. Statistical data showed less than a 5% chance of survival from sepsis.
Family arrived, and suddenly he started to respond to their voice, touch, hugs, kisses, and encouragement. Continually surrounded in the ICU by his children and grandchildren, he weathered the storm and defied statistics, and was able to go home.
Modern medicine?
Or reciprocated love?
Gene Uzawa Dorio, M.D.
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