I recently found myself performing a brain death assessment on a patient. A state in which all meaningful brain activity has permanently and irreversibly seized. Death by neurologic criteria is a tough paradox to comprehend, as through artificial support the heart and lungs can still continue to function - which is why our role as neurologists is imperative in diagnosing and determining brain death criteria.

Immersed in a deeply profound moment, I completed intricate portions of the assessment and then stood by this sweet, defeated old lady and her loved ones in an ICU room as they said goodbye. I could sense her warmth even through the coldness of her extremities. A complete stranger, present in the most defining moment of her life, as she transitions to the beyond. To be the last person to have touched her, to have paid intensely deep attention to the most subtle elements of her sense of being, and then share a moment of silence, solitude and odd calmness with her family as the storm of her passing swept silently across the room.