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On Being a Doctor |15 November 2016

On Giving

Emma Goldsmith Rooney, BS

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  • From Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia.

    Requests for Single Reprints: Emma Goldsmith Rooney, BS, 100 Woodruff Circle, Atlanta, GA 30322.

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I stare at you as they wheel you down the hallway toward our operating room. You are a little twisted in the bed, and, as you get closer, I see that you're all lanky limbs and stubble and messy brown hair. My heart sinks because I know by looking at you that you're close to my brother's age, and you look like him, too. I have so many questions. Did your family just say goodbye? Are your parents upstairs crying? Are there brothers and sisters and friends and cousins? Did your room have flowers in it? Or did it all happen so quickly that they never got to say goodbye? Were you in pain, or did it happen in the blink of an eye? You get closer, and I notice that your chest rises and falls in a familiar way—but, of course, the machine is breathing for you. “Dead on the scene” they pronounced you at the site of the car crash last night. Your driver's license said that you were an organ donor, so they intubated you and plugged you into a ventilator to keep your insides alive until they found some people who needed them.
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Rooney EG. On Giving. Ann Intern Med. ;165:740. doi: 10.7326/M16-0227

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Published: Ann Intern Med. 2016;165(10):740.

DOI: 10.7326/M16-0227

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2016 American College of Physicians
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