SCOTLAND'S Makar Liz Lochhead yesterday gave the first emotional public account of the moment she was told by a surgeon her husband was dying.
At the launch of a new campaign for a shift in the way society deals with death, the 62-year-old poet laureate broke down as she said some doctors must be more sensitive.
Her comments came as a campaign got under way that also claims avoiding thinking and talking about death can mean people are not able to die where they want to. It claims the bereaved find themselves isolated and grieving families face legal battles because loved ones have not left wills.
Lochhead, whose husband Tom Logan died of cancer aged 55 last year, spoke to an audience in Edinburgh made up of 40 groups that have joined the campaign, including Alzheimer Scotland, Children’s Hospice Association Scotland, Macmillan Cancer Support, Marie Curie Cancer Care, the Ayrshire Hospice and Royal Hospital for Sick Children Edinburgh and health boards across the country.
She called on doctors to provide greater privacy, respect and compassion.
Lochhead read from a letter she had written to the surgeon at Gartnavel Hospital in Glasgow who had told her and Mr Logan the diagnosis. She said: “I remember everything that you, Mr C, said ... you said ‘I am a surgeon, I can’t operate on you, you might as well go home. I see you live nearby. Do you have children?’
“I hope you are a better surgeon because you are an utterly inadequate human being at least in terms of lacking communication skills.”
She recounted the Hippocratic oath compelling doctors to “do no harm”, adding: “Eighteen months later [after the encounter] I was still unable to come into this room [yesterday]. I am still stuck. I didn’t get an answer to that letter. I shun the phrase to ‘go through it’, I feel that you learn to live alongside it.
“I wanted to write this down because I thought it might be useful for young doctors.
“Could you even swing the curtain shut as you go past?”
She said: “That man [the surgeon] should not have been in the job he is. I would say this is a plea for better training for doctors and for people who happen not to be very good at this to plan a script.”
The group, known as Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief, launched the initiative after research found 58% had not talked to their family and friends about the kind of care their loved ones would want at the end of their life, including where they would like to die.
This is despite the same survey by the group Dying Matters finding that 61% of people were scared of dying in hospital and 60% saying that if people felt more comfortable talking about death and dying, they would be less likely to die alone.
Kate Lennon, chair of Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief, said: “Death is inevitable but the problems and stresses we create by the difficulty we have as a society to acknowledge this are not.
“Some people believe it’s morbid to think and talk about death but it’s not.”
A BMA spokesman said: “It is essential doctors and patients talk together about what to expect in the very anxious period at the end of a person’s life.
“How best to care for individuals at the end of life is one of the most complex areas in medicine and guidance is in place to assist doctors to act in the best interests of their patients.”
A spokesman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: “We are concerned to hear of Ms Lochhead and her husband’s experience during what was undoubtedly a very difficult time.Bereavement, death and dying are highly emotive issues, and all our staff are expected to deal with these in a sensitive and caring manner.”
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