I became a doctor because I wanted to save lives. I began my career in the trenches of the Intensive Care Unit, using high-technology machines and interventions to keep hearts beating as long as possible. But in 2002, the rising Palliative Care movement showed me that there is a human being hiding among the organs and disease. I began to practice medicine in a new way, attending to the patient’s preferences and values instead of merely their physiology.
I am now committed to changing the way that we “do death” as a society. As an ICU physician, I have an insider’s view of the epidemic of bad deaths, where people are attached to various machinery as their bodies and minds give out. I have spent the past decade bringing stories to a variety of audiences in order to change perspectives and behavior around how we die in America. Extremis (Netflix), an Oscar-nominated short documentary directed by Dan Krauss, featured my work in the ICU, and my book Extreme Measures: Finding a Better Path to the End of Life (Penguin 2017) is filled with stories that address both lay and medical audiences.
I know a great character when I see one. Bambi was extraordinary — funny, quirky, and brave — even as she lay dying of melanoma. When she invited me in to tell her story, I thought that she would be the perfect character to help people come to terms with-and plan for-death.
But this film taught me something new. I had originally intended to tell Bambi’s story, about a brave woman taking control of her life, and death. It was only two years after Bambi died, when I watched the first rough cut of the film with Kevin Gordon, that I realized the real story was really about Rick. And all of the people like him who are doing the unrecognized and unsupported work of caring for loved ones at home.
My hope for this film is that Bambi and Rick’s experience will not have been in vain— that it will contribute to supporting the many caregivers who suffer in silence as they go about doing the work of angels.
