> When told of my upcoming case, I had mixed feelings. On the one hand, being in perfect health, unaccustomed to suffering and therefore easily disconcerted by the thought of death, I was horrified. My attitude toward death was like that of a young person standing blindfolded and tied to a post, awaiting a volley from a firing squad. The whole concept made my blood run cold. Yet the case also aroused in me a feeling of relief. Simply put, there was no risk of malpractice, as my patient was already dead. Many anaesthesiologists have such self-centred thoughts when taking care of ASA 6 patients.

> After we moved her from the gurney to the operating table, the doctors and nurses, so used to taking care of living patients, stared at one another stupidly, as if not knowing why they had come together or why they stood around the table.

Sorry this strikes me as embellishing for the case of writing a story.

Background: I was a neurosurgery resident at a level 1 trauma center. I was involved in determining brain death (though the final certification was by an attending surgeon). I worked closely with the transplant team. I declared (normal) cardiac death many times. I had many agonizing conversations with families about withdrawal of care.

Anesthesia is a 4 year residency. Even the 2nd year anesthesia residents I worked with had more of an awareness and lack of naivety that this author shows.

And the OR teams were much more prepared and professional than this. They knew what they had to do and why they had to do it.

If there are other physicians here, I would love to hear your opinions, but this whole piece strikes me as overwrought and full of embellishments to make a certain point.