Aoife Abbey

“I don't believe the sickest people that I meet throughout my day at work are in the business of having outlandish desires, either. I don't think they are staring at the square-tiled ceiling of the intensive-care unit and dreaming of being an astronaut or an explorer. I don't think they're holding the hand of their wife and thinking, "I hope we win the lottery and become rich." Perhaps I am wrong, but I think they are, for the most part, simply hoping they will get to be a part of life again. They are hoping for all the things we take for granted every day: the ability to breathe by yourself, to get out of bed, to sit on a toilet or lie in a bath. To swallow your food and choose what you want for breakfast. To walk out into the world and appreciate all its beauty, or complain about the weather - but to have that choice.”
― Aoife Abbey, Seven Signs of Life: Stories from an Intensive Care Doctor

“When relatives and friends grieve for their loved ones, they grieve for that patient: who they were and what they meant to their lives. When doctors find themselves unexpectedly ambushed by grief over the death of a patient, I think it is often for another reason. Yes, it is because that person could be our child, our friend, our brother, but it is often because that life didn't follow the rules of whatever vague, illogical structure we use to hold together our shaky universe. It is because they remind us of how little we can really control.”
― Aoife Abbey, Seven Signs of Life: Stories from an Intensive Care Doctor