A palliative care dilemma on the first day of the job
It was my first day at my new job, practicing a new specialty. Having spent fourteen years as an ICU physician — including a four-year pulmonary/critical-care fellowship in this very hospital — I had just completed a palliative care fellowship. Now I was the hospital’s palliative care consult attending.
When I set eyes on the patient in room 1407, my first thought …
