Fatemah Qasem is an obstetric anesthesiologist in Kuwait.

The grief health care workers carry after maternal death

Physician
August 31, 2026

She was a young mother.

We had never met her before. She arrived gasping for air. Within moments, the room was full. Everyone came together with one purpose, to save her. Then her heart stopped.

CPR began immediately. The obstetric team delivered the baby while compressions continued. Thirty minutes passed. No pulse. We kept going. Every voice in the room was thinking out loud. What are the reversible causes? Keep going. Don’t …

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The grief health care workers carry after maternal death

Grieving as a doctor when medicine cannot save your own

Physician
June 23, 2026

There is a particular kind of grief that medicine does not prepare us for: losing someone you love while understanding exactly how hard everyone tried to save them.

My cousin died from cancer only months ago. But to me, she was never simply my cousin. She was my little sister in every way that mattered. Someone I loved instinctively, someone I felt responsible for protecting long before illness entered our lives. …

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Grieving as a doctor when medicine cannot save your own