To be honest I'll be expecting some cool news if the doctor felt confident enough to talk to me through some neat technology and not face to face, this just seems really stupid.
'I got these MRI results back and there's no lungs left, there's nothing to work with'.
I'm curious, how does this happen?
sounds like he was already told the diagnosis in person and this guy confirmed it
To be honest, I am too...
if it's cancer, that probably means that most of his lung tissue isnt functional and/or was replaced by cancer cells. Having lung tissue remaining doesnt matter, if it doesnt work, it's no different from a lump of useless dirt. There are other conditions that can cause lung damage to that extent as well, such as long term respiratory illnesses, pneumoconiosis, cystic fibrosis, severe infections, MDR-TB, etc.
This is such an awkward post that I love it
I can understand the medical staff's POV of trying to look for alternatives at delivering bad news.
It is common for doctors to suffer inhumane level of stress and depression. I can't fathom what my mental state would be if I had to, on a semi-regular basis, tell people that their loved ones weren't going to make it. Still, this isn't quite the way to do it yet.
I thought I remembered a skit from scrubs about this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdzqXsPDkX0
the first time I had to sign off on a death when I got a job is still vivid in my head. There was this sweet old man who'd been coming by to the hospital i was in, for some months for getting his cancer treated, but one day he got extremely sick, his vitals dropped like a stone, and despite everything i tried to do, he collapsed and never woke again.
So you can imagine what was going on when I had to tell the patients' relatives that the poor old man was no more, but another old guy around his age took my hand in his and told me, "we saw what you did and we know that you tried your level best, it was just god's will that it was his time to go. Don't blame yourself for what happened." I felt like I wanted to cry then, but no tears came, just the familiar awful headache I get in the presence of death. It was by no means the first time i'd witnessed death, but what that person told me, profoundly touched me at the time.
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