The Southern Medical Journal (SMJ) is the official, peer-reviewed journal of the Southern Medical Association. It has a multidisciplinary and inter-professional focus that covers a broad range of topics relevant to physicians and other healthcare specialists.

SMJ // Article

Acknowledgment

Pandemic and the Art of Dying Well

Authors: Lester Liao, MD, MTS, Lydia S. Dugdale, MD, MAR

Abstract

Despite the enormous death toll of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, conversations about dying well have been sidelined. Health practitioners have instead focused on public health mitigation strategies, therapeutic options, and outcome data. When we have spoken of dying, the conversation usually entails advance directive completion and dying alone as a result of hospital visitor restrictions. If coronavirus disease 2019 should teach us anything, it is that we must be prepared for death in and out of a pandemic. But challenges abound.
Posted in: Infectious Disease154

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