title: Care of the dying adolescent.
abstract: This is a description of the obstacles encountered in the management of one 17 year old patient dying with malignant melanoma. Various areas are seen to contribute to the difficulties including the "health care system" (specifically the hospital environment), the patient himself, his family, his disease and its treatment, and his physician(s). An increased awareness of the difficulties would be helpful to those of us not frequently encountering the responsibility of caring for a dying adolescent.The details have been left vague or slightly changed in this real case to respect the privacy of those involved.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Macdonald