Dying alone: An Indigenous man's journey at the end of life

A case report of a 70-year-old Indigenous man from a reserve in northern Alberta presented to an emergency department in Edmonton with a long-standing history of abdominal pain is presented. He had a 3-month history of worsening symptoms and declining function at home. His ultrasound results revealed a Klatskin-type hilar cholangiocarcinoma with involvement of the right-sided bile ducts and hematogenous metastases to the liver. The cancer was unresectable owing to circumferential encasement of the right hepatic artery, and the family decided not to proceed with a biopsy. The patient had been living with his daughter after his wife's death 3 months earlier. Past medical history included type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and bilateral blindness from a previous work accident.