Love to the last sight

"Dr. Masayyat, please come as soon as possible... I don't think she'll make it tonight"

"Shoot" was the only thing i was saying as i ran to her room. I was so mad not only because someone was gonna die during my first call as a senior physician here but also because after more than a year they still can't pronounce my name right.


The patient was an old lady who had so many brain strokes in the past that became unable to move any limb, eat on her own or even talk for more than a year now. However she remained fully alert and seemed like she understood all what's going with her.

I was called because she wasn't breathing well and the nurse felt she was passing away. I went to her room and asked all the family but the husband to leave. I asked him to give her a kiss as that usually means it's the last kiss and asked him about what his wishes were regarding putting her on a ventilator if we had to. This 80-something old man was trembling and I couldn't really see his face from all the tears covering it, and he just said "I only don't want her to be in pain".


To me she sounded like someone with a failing heart, so i gave her some medications to relieve the stress over her heart and make her breath better. The good news is that she did well on those and her breathing improved.

So next morning I went in to check on her and I found the husband sitting there. This time I could distniguish his face and I remembered the old lady as the first patient I saw in America when I started last year. I could easily remember how her husband was always by her bedside in the hospital, how he would ask about the results of her blood test at 5 every morning before the docotors would come.

The only thing that lady could do is open her eyes and smile, and you I could see the old couple looking at each other and smiling like two young people just falling in love. They haven't spoken to each other in more than a year, no words, just looks and glances and smiles, but behind all of that was a strong relationship and honesty to stay with each other "in sickness and health", and love that would prevail till the last sight.