Notes Near the Dying Person

Abstract

This work arises during the stay in a palliative care (pc) unit as part of the residency plan in Family and Community Medicine. Through two patients, with very different vital attitudes, it is analyzed death, that crucial moment in our medical work. It is surprising how sympathetic we are to the death of people who are not part of our lives and how difficult it is to understand it when it approaches our world or ourselves.

In this research, it was reviewed Freud’s work and other authors’ who, from their profession, have approached the study of death, in an attempt to understand what happens at the level of experience to the patient and his or her relatives, as well as health personnel. What can be behind this apparent understanding? It is part of our job to accompany the patient in these circumstances.