*Picture from www.news.discovery.com
There are days in my job where I am reminded on how precious life really is. Today was one of those days. I received a call from a doctor about a patient in end stage heart disease. This particular patient had a defibrillator implanted and needed to be turned off so when the time comes, he can pass peacefully without the device trying to keep him alive. I arrived to where the patient was to see their adult daughter and partner in the room with them. I made sure they were very aware of why I was there and what that meant, from a device point of view (I'm not a doctor so I can't comment on much else). They were understandably upset, but were incredibly polite and gracious towards me, even cracking a joke or two with me in their time of suffering. The patient was... let's say not completely there anymore so not sure they knew what was happening. Probably not a bad thing necessarily. It is definitely one of the hardest parts of my job and thankfully we don't do it very often at all. At the end of the day, none of us are here forever. We have no idea how long we have, or when our time is up. I was reminded today that I am thankful for life. That I am here, on this earth and I get to live my life. That I have choices I can make and people I love. It's important to appreciate what you have when you have it. I'll endeavour to continue to live the best life I can, without regrets.
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