A family physician misses hospital rounds
As a family doctor, I had the privilege of sitting down at the hospital recently with Mr. M, a longstanding patient of mine, and his family. Mr. M is a college-educated engineer, struggling near the end of his life with end-stage kidney disease, dialysis, severe congestive heart failure and crippling COPD. And he was pretty down about it.
In the hospital, a critical care physician, a pulmonologist, a nephrologist, and a cardiologist …