Complications (2002)
“And there is one last thing that you have to ask about: the autopsy. How should you go about it? You could do it offhandedly, as if it were the most ordinary thing in the world: “Shall we do an autopsy, then?” Or you could be firm, use your Sergeant Joe Friday voice: “Unless you have strong objections, we will need to do an autopsy, ma’am.” Or you could take yourself out of it: “I am sorry, but they require me to ask, Do you want an autopsy done?” What you can’t be nowadays is mealymouthed abou...t it. I once took care of a woman in her eighties who had given up her driver’s license only to get hit by a car—driven by someone even older—while she was walking to a bus stop. She sustained a depressed skull fracture and cerebral bleeding, and, despite surgery, she died a few days later. So, on the spring afternoon after the patient took her last breath, I stood beside her and bowed my head with the tearful family. Then, as delicately as I could—not even using the awful word—I said, “If it’s all right, we’d like to do an examination to confirm the cause of death.” “An autopsy?” a nephew said, horrified.MoreLess
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