Letting go

I recently attended the funeral of a patient. He was lucky to have lived both long and well. It was an honor to have known him and to be a participant in his life at an important point. With much input from specialists, thought and prayer on my part, and numerous conversations with family members, it was decided to let him go - to stop the life-sustaining treatments in favor of a better quality of life. What a gift his family gave him - to be at peace at the end, to take death on his own terms, as he would have wanted.