Citation

Nance DB, Scarlet S, Dreesen EB. AMA J. Ethics 2018; 20(5): 501-506.

Affiliation

A trauma surgeon and the chief of the General and Acute Care Surgery Division of the Department of Surgery at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, American Medical Association)

DOI

10.1001/journalofethics.2018.20.5.imhl1-1805

PMID

29763397

Abstract

David Nance's photographs invite us to cross the liminal space between road and roadside and to consider the experience that trauma surgeons share with injured patients and the families of the injured and the dead. Just as trauma surgeons use the tools of science and surgery to make order out of the chaos of "the scene," so patients' families use art, found objects, and grief to transform anonymous roadsides into specific, personal remembrances. Bound together by the uncertainties of trauma, we can all stand at the side of the road bearing witness to both the inevitability and unpredictability of death.

© 2018 American Medical Association. All Rights Reserved.

Language: en