Hi there
I wonder if you can help
On Friday I did a ward round and found one of my patients dead. This was very unexpected, there were no warning signs and he had been fine a few minutes before.
I needed to inform the corroner as a post-mortem needs to be done in these cases (I hope this is OK – he was a Goy).
The next thing is I needed to tell his family. the only number I had was of his 80 year old wife whom I had never met. I called her and asked her to come in and see me. She said she was comming in any case with her daughter in a few hours. She became suspicious and asked if her husband was dead. I felt it reasonale to lie in this situatuion and I told her no , but please come in I need to speak to you. I felt that I could not tell her the news over the phone, alone and I was unable to comfort her over the phone or assess the help she needed.
I called her in and told her.
Some of the staff here are upset with me and feel I should have been honest.
What do you feel?
To tell a person about the death of a close family member might be danger.
Therefore the way you handled the case was the right way, both ethically and Halachiclly.
