“You will get better,” the physician told my brother. My brother was younger than I am now when he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. I don’t think even he believed the doctor, or he wouldn’t have asked me to take care of everything.
Two days later, in the intensive care unit, another doctor told us that there was nothing more to be done for him.
Doctors shouldn’t lie to their patients, I thought, as we buried my brother a week later. He was 50.
My hope is that my doctors never lie to me.
Madeleine Taylor
Paterson, New Jersey