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To the Editors:

Patricia Benner’s article, "Death as a Human Passage: Compassionate Care for Persons Dying in Critical Care Units" (September 2001:355–359) brought back memories of an era we forget at our peril. She correctly writes, "Death with dignity has become a loaded term meaning many things to many people," including "the absence of unnecessary heroic measures" for a dying patient for some and "not prolonging life that is deteriorating in its quality and continuity" for others. Her thoughts reminded me of the death of former President Harry S. Truman. Truman had earned a reputation as a politician who would not back down from fighting for what he truly believed in (thus the nickname "Give ‘em hell Harry"). He fell ill in December 1972, clinging to life for several weeks while a nation watched his battle with what became multisystem organ failure.¹ A comment I heard following his death was most appropriate: He died as he lived: fighting.

One might guess that Truman viewed death as "the enemy," which Benner suggests is a legitimate view, but I would go one step further and suggest that his death was another form of death with dignity. No matter how much experience we have that tells us that a certain critically ill patient is likely to die, critical care nurses show compassion, in part, by honoring and respecting the decision of the patient who wishes to die with dignity as he or she sees it, whether that means limiting life support or treating death as an enemy to be fought by all available means.

David A. Sherman, RN, MSN, CCRN
Needham, Mass

REFERENCE

1. Associated Press. Truman’s Condition Remains Critical; Heart Rate Irregular. The Boston Globe. December 25, 1972;202:17.

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