When Death gets objectified.

I realised this one morning, while taking rounds with my senior colleague. As we talked about all the patients, I realised he skipped one patient in the ICU. And when I asked him, I realised that he had passed away. Which for us was so normal, expected. And without a word we carried on with our rounds. Because after all its a daily affair for us. Death a normally taboo subject, is an objectified for us doctors. We no longer attach much emotion to this. Its like any other event of the day. Unless, we become very attached or have worked very hard to save that patient. But even then if it does affect us, we get over it soon enough. Its a defense mechanism really. And a good one too. Can you imagine,if we let this affect us, we would all be emotional wrecks. As it is suicide rate amongst doctors is very high. But rest assured, I have a barricade against this in my mind. Whether I call it being emotionally strong, or whether I am just plain cold hearted, is a matter of debate, one which I dont intend to get into.