Dealing with Death & Dying in Medical Education and Practice
© 2001 Kirsti A. Dyer, MD, MS Email:griefdoc@kirstimd.com
AMSA Convention March 30, 2001
Quotations on
Being with a Dying Person

Not every patient can be saved, but his illness may be eased by the way the doctor responds to him…He has little to lose and every-thing to gain by letting the sick man into his heart. 
If he does, they can share, as few others can, the wonder, terror and exaltation of being on the edge of being.

Analtole Broyard, Intoxicated by My Illness
To begin to relieve a patient’s suffering, the physician must have thoroughly explored the patient’s unique experience of pain and the meaning of the loss.
 Quill and Townsend, Arch Intern Med. 1991
To understand any living thing, you must creep within and feel the beating of its heart. 
                                                              W. Macneile Dixon
We experience intimacy not by sharing words, but by sharing the silence.
Rachel Naomi Remen, MD
Learn to get in touch with silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences. All events are blessings given to us to learn from. 
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
Be yourself and relate person to person. 
Be ready to listen again and again. 
Be respectful.
Be aware of feelings and non-verbal cues.
Be present. 
Be comfortable with silence.
Be human. 
Be genuine.
Most of all—Be there. 
Kirsti A. Dyer, MD, MS
Compilation of resources for this presentation and Website © 2001 Kirsti A. Dyer, MD, MS. 
Journey of Hearts, www.journeyofhearts.org