Today I held the hand of a frail old woman as the cardiologists did a TEE (Transesophageal Echocardiogram) on her and the anesthesiologist tried to sedate her. She was never really completely sedated and kept squeezing my hand for most of the procedure. During a TEE a probe is descended down the esophagus to get a closer look at the left heart. You can imagine how uncomfortable it is to have a probe stuck down your throat and how much of a gagging reflex you would have. The TEE was a hard and long one as we had to get a good look at her mitral valve which was leaking, causing her blood to backflow and worsening her heart failure. What we found out was that her valve had completely dehisced which would make it impossible to fix - she was in such weak condition that taking her to surgery would kill her. As a result, there was nothing else we could do to help her.


Edit** Today is Wednesday January 27th. I was away from the hospital for Monday and Tuesday while I went to LA for an interview. Today I found out that she passed away the very night we did the TEE. Even with multiple pressors on board, her systolic blood pressure was in the 50s. Care was withdrawn and she passed away.