Atul Gawande supports World Hospice and Palliative Care Day 2014

On World Hospice and Palliative Care Day 2014, the acclaimed author and surgeon Dr Atul Gawande gave a message of support.

"Dying and death confront every new doctor and nurse. The first times, some cry. Some shut down. Some hardly notice. When I saw my first deaths, I was too guarded to weep. But I had recurring nightmares in which I’d find my patients’ corpses in my house—even in my bed.

I felt as if I’d failed. But death, of course, is not a failure. Death is normal. Death may be the enemy, but it is also the natural order of things. I knew these truths abstractly, but I didn’t know them concretely—that they could be truths not just for everyone but also for this person right in front of me, for this person I was responsible for.

Support World Hospice and Palliative Care Day on October 11th 2014 to recognise and support the 10 million palliative professionals, volunteers and family carers worldwide'