As I was taking the history of illness from her husband, I was made aware of their vows of love by the nursing staff. Everyone was sad about their situation knowing it must be hard for them. She had suffered from a stroke and ended up with a dependency on the ventilator. She was alive on the token of a breath, a heartbeat, and a very involved husband.
Every passing day she was having difficulty in achieving transcendence. There were genuine feelings but the facts contradicted the hope, The team saw the struggles. There was a heart ready to beat a rhythm of life but the brain was numb. We knew that he knew about her poor prognosis but he was not ready to let go of her.
One day the husband requested the team to have her started on Reiki treatment; "the life force may heal her" was his reason. There was skepticism about his want for a nonconventional treatment.
We are in the practice of medicine following the order of black-and-white protocols, said one who spoke his mind. There was a certainty in her dismal prognosis that everyone concluded, but a curious empathic mind allowed an unconventional path to ease their final goodbyes.
To some, when standing in the no man's land of medicine, supporting a family even if it is against all odds is a "step-up compassion". Others know that the process of living while losing a loved one makes people do things. As in life so in love, some acts are heroic and others are wishful.
