What a doctor knows about discussing life and death
It was a hot and humid afternoon when I got the call from my dad Paul.
I was sitting in the school car park with one child, about to pick up another.
As a general practitioner doctor of 40 plus years he cut straight to the point: one of his major arteries was 95 per cent blocked.
He would have surgery in two weeks.
The risks were high; death before the operation, death during the operation or “worse” waking up from the operation with permanent damage from a stroke.
My brain went fuzzy, emotions pricked my eyes but my journalistic brain kicked in and I asked for the facts.
It was a 10-minute conversation and one of many we would have as my dad underwent multiple high-risk operations that year.
During this time we talked about death and dying, life and survival.
These are hard conversations – sometimes painful, confronting, urgent.
They are also topics we have to face as we write about our own lives or help a loved one write their life story.
In this article I sit down with my dad to discuss what tips he has gleaned over a lifetime of medicine on talking to people about death and dying.
Continue reading Death and dying: How to have hard conversations for your writing