Eventide

I suppose there are those who practice the art of medicine who become accustomed to the routine of death, those who practice the specialties of oncology or geriatrics, but in pediatrics such events are thankfully rare. Perhaps that is why they are all the more poignant when they occur. Death should be far removed from childhood, but occasionally it takes up residence in the youth bed. And each death, as it happens, brings to mind all of the others that I have dealt with over the past 24 years of practice.