99. She Could Tell
My young, newly-married patient got in a bad motorcycle crash with her husband. She survived, and her husband didn’t. She woke up and started yelling, “Where’s my husband?!”
Then it got worse. See, we couldn’t tell her that he didn’t make it, as only the doctor could do that. Unfortunately, the doctor couldn’t come up for three hours.
So for three excruciating hours, we couldn’t tell her anything. I would walk into her room, knowing that her life was about to be destroyed. My gut hurt just thinking about it. I’d ask her, “Can I get you anything, ma’am?” and she’d reply, “I just want to know where my husband is. Is he okay?”
I would tell her that I wasn’t sure, but no matter how hard I tried to poker face it, I think she could tell in my voice that he was gone. There’s no chapter on that in any textbook.
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