How to Break Bad News

How do you break REALLY bad news?  How do you tell someone that they’re seriously ill, or even dying? Find out how doctors learn and how they deal with the stress and trauma, for both their patients and themselves. Breaking Bad News By Chrissie GilesI was 14 when I was told that Dad was dying. I was sitting on the floor of our lounge. Mum said that she had some news. Sensing the worst, I fixated on the newspaper open in front of me, staring at an advert for German cut glass. It was cancer, in his pancreas, and he might only live a few more months. They were going to try an operation, she told my sister and me to reduce the pain. As a nurse, she must have known that this was unlikely to work, but she knew her audience and didn’t want to overload us with information. She must also have known that pancreatic cancer has one of the bleakest outlooks, due in part to a lack of symptoms in the early stages. By the time you start to notice nausea, jaundice or weight loss, it’s too late to hope that it’s something less serious. That night, as I wrote my diary, I could think only about how I felt. Reading it back now I wonder what it was like for my mum, still reeling from the news herself and having to tell the rest of us. As a doctor, Kate Granger often deals with discussions of bad news and end-of-life issues. But there’s another reason the subject interests her. Three years ago, at age 29, she was diagnosed with a very rare and terminal form of cancer that affects soft tissue. She’s spoken and written widely about her experiences living with a terminal disease. She spearheaded the #hellomynameis campaign,…

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