DR. ROGER FLORES: When
you know that you're losing the battle
against cancer, you have to make sure you
prepare for the worst.
The toughest thing
that I've seen is when patients will
continue to fight to the end because they feel that that's
what their family wants.
Their body has taken a
pounding, and they just feel that they have
to keep going or else their family feels that
they're quitting on them.
And they have to
realize, and the family has to realize that that's not
in the patient's best interest.
Sometimes the
patients get so tired, and they need to
be told, it's OK.
Let them go.
And they just need to feel
that they did everything to keep that person there.
And that's where the
pain and palliative care team comes into
play, where they help patients pass without pain.
And what you need more
than a medical degree is a sense of what
human beings feel and what the family is
feeling as well to make sure that you help them
through those dark times.
My name is Dr. Roger Flores.
I'm the chairman of
thoracic surgery at Mt.
Sinai Health System and
Professor of Surgery at Mount Sinai
School of Medicine.