title: A practical approach to the family that expects a miracle.
abstract: When a patient is extremely ill and/or dying, and the family expects a miraculous recovery, this situation can be very challenging to physicians, particularly when there is certainty that the miracle will occur through divine intervention. A practical approach is therefore provided to clinicians for engaging families that anticipate the miraculous healing of a sick patient. This strategy involves exploring the meaning and significance of a miracle, providing a balanced, nonargumentative response and negotiation of patient-centered compromises, while conveying respect for patient spirituality and practicing good medicine. Such an approach, tailored to the specifics of each family, can be effective in helping a family come to a place of acceptance about the impending death of their loved one.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Division, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Electronic address: delisser@mail.med.upenn.edu.
authors.forename: Horace M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: DeLisser
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001293:Attitude to Death; D003422:Critical Care / Q000379:methods; D016638:Critical Illness / Q000628:therapy; D003657:Decision Making; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000379:methods*; D018410:Pneumonia, Bacterial / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D012131:Respiratory Insufficiency / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D029181:Spirituality