This doctor checks his patients’ Facebook pages before telling their parents they’ve died – and the reason why will break your heart
Dr Louis Profeta told how seeing his patients alive and smiling in cheerful Facebook snaps hit home that they had once been living, breathing people - not just 'a nameless dead body that felt like a wet bag of newspapers'
AN accident and emergency doctor has revealed the heartbreaking reason he checks the Facebook pages of dead patients before telling their parents they've died.
Dr Louis Profeta, who works at St Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, revealed "it kinds of keeps me human".
"I see you wearing the same necklace and earrings that now sit in a specimen cup on the counter, the same ball cap or jacket that has been split open with trauma scissors and pulled under the backboard, the lining stained with blood," he said in a candid
"Looks like you were wearing it to the U2 concert. I heard it was great.
"I see your smile, how it should be, the colour of eyes when they are filled with life, your time on the beach, blowing out candles, Christmas at Grandma’s.
"I see that. I see you standing with your mom and dad in front of the sign to your college."
He continued, in a post which has been shared thousands of times, said: "I’m about to change their lives — your mom and dad, that is. In about five minutes, they will never be the same, they will never be happy again.
"Right now you’re just a nameless dead body that feels like a wet bag of newspapers that we have been pounding on, sticking IV lines and tubes and needles in, trying desperately to save you.
"There’s no motion, no life, nothing to tell me you once had dreams or aspirations. I owe it to them to learn just a bit about you before I go in. "
He goes on to admit he is "mad" at his patient for the way that they died, explaining: "Maybe you were texting instead of watching the road, or you were drunk when you should have Uber-ed.
"Perhaps you snorted heroin or Xanax for the first time or a line of coke, tried meth or popped a Vicodin at the campus party and did a couple shots.
I check your Facebook page before I tell them you’re dead because it reminds me that I am talking about a person, someone they love - it quiets the voice in my head that is screaming at you right now shouting: “You mother f*****, how could you do this to them, to people you are supposed to love
Dr Louis Profeta
"Maybe you just rode your bike without a helmet or didn’t heed your parents’ warning when they asked you not to hang out with that 'friend,' or to be more cautious when coming to a four-way stop. Maybe you just gave up."
And he added telling parents the worse news they were likely to ever hear was dreadful.
"You’re kind of lucky that you don’t have to see it," he wrote, addressing the dead person directly. "Dad screaming your name over and over, mom pulling her hair out, curled up on the floor with her hand over her head as if she’s trying to protect herself from unseen blows.
"I check your Facebook page before I tell them you’re dead because it reminds me that I am talking about a person, someone they love - it quiets the voice in my head that is screaming at you right now shouting: “You mother f*****, how could you do this to them, to people you are supposed to love!"
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