--- title: Advice and Tips: 4 Life Lessons Learned From Someone in Their Deathbed description: We never have as much time as we think canonical: https://time.com/3938587/life-lessons-deathbed/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-27T16:00:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:58:45.650Z article:section: Ideas og:title: 4 Life Lessons a Doctor Has Learned From Patients og:description: We never have as much time as we think og:url: https://time.com/3938587/life-lessons-deathbed/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 4 Life Lessons a Doctor Has Learned From Patients twitter:description: We never have as much time as we think twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # 4 Life Lessons a Doctor Has Learned From Patients > Sponsored content. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=e375a515-47c1-405a-8611-127cc524a5ef&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Inside The Operating Room During Awake Surgery [Watch (HLS stream): Inside The Operating Room During Awake Surgery](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/lyJruvm0.m3u8) (4:57)  _Published 2015-03-02. Brittany Capone is having a benign tumor removed from her brain and because it is so close to her speech center, surgeons will keep her awake and talk to her during the procedure_ by [Quora](https://time.com/author/quora/) ## Quora Jun 27, 2015 4:00 PM UTC by [Quora](https://time.com/author/quora/) ## Quora Jun 27, 2015 4:00 PM UTC [_Answer_](http://www.quora.com/If-youre-a-medical-practitioner-what-revelations-have-you-had-about-health-and-mortality-since-youve-been-working-in-this-field/answer/David-Chan-10)_by_[_David Chan_](http://www.quora.com/David-Chan-10)_on_ [_Quora_](http://www.quora.com/)_._ I’ve taken care of cancer patients for several decades and they’ve taught me something about life. 1\. **A** **job is just a job.** I often get into discussions about life and living with my cancer patients who have a unique outlook because they are face to face with their mortality. Not one single patient has told me that they wished they had worked more. I’ve taken it to heart and have made it a point to be there for important events for family and friends and to take vacation days. 2\. I’m reminded daily to have a **big picture view of life** and to understand what is a real problem. It’s so easy to be caught up in day to day dramas that we lose sight of what is a real problem. A real problem is finding a big lump in your neck, getting a scan, then a biopsy, and being told that it’s cancer. Virtually every other problem then goes away. 3\. True wealth is measured in **family and friends**. I’m not talking about numbers. What I’m talking about is the small group of people that will really be with you when the shit hits the fan. I’ve had very wealthy patients with big families and a large group of friends that all disappeared when things went south. Nothing could be sadder to see. And I’ve had other patients who had 2 or 3 people in their lives that made incredible personal sacrifices of time and effort to help them through. I think of it as proof of a life well lived. 4\. A corollary to #1 is that **we never have as much time** as we think. I’m reminded of a patient who was a young and very successful executive with pancreas cancer. He wasn’t curable and it was poorly treatable given his situation. His life expectancy went from 40 years to 6 months within the week of his diagnosis. He’d never taken a vacation with his family; his wife and 3 school-aged kids. We reviewed the pros and cons of treatment and he decided to forego treatment, rented a sailboat and took his family through the Caribbean Islands for about 3 weeks. Because of his cancer, he didn’t feel physically great but he told me that it was the best 3 weeks of his life. I’m grateful for the lesson he and many other patients have taught me. _This question originally appeared on_ [_Quora: If you’re a medical practitioner, what revelations have you had about health and mortality since you’ve been working in this field?_](http://www.quora.com/If-youre-a-medical-practitioner-what-revelations-have-you-had-about-health-and-mortality-since-youve-been-working-in-this-field) _More from Quora:_ * [What does it feel like to tell someone how long they have left to live?](http://www.quora.com/What-does-it-feel-like-to-tell-someone-how-long-they-have-left-to-live/answer/David-Chan-10) * [What medical facts should laypeople be aware of?](http://www.quora.com/What-medical-facts-should-laypeople-be-aware-of) * [What motivated you to go into medicine?](http://www.quora.com/What-motivated-you-to-go-into-medicine) ## Transcript Are you pretty comfortable dear? The first time I found out I had a tumor, I was 20. Where do you live dear? I would go get something and when I got there, I wouldn't know what I was going to get. Do you know where you are? I couldn't remember things good, so I was nervous. So that it's crazy. [ MUSIC ] I just want water. I first heard about the surgery, where I would have to be awake, about a month ago. It's not a matter of being awake or not. It's just the whole thing about having surgery of the brain period, is going to be, like, the hardest thing. Very nervous. I'm a nervous guy. [ LAUGH ] It's going to be the longest four hours of our life. We just hope this all turns out good, that's all. No. You did not get me a teddy bear. What am I going to do with this thing? [ LAUGH ] [ INAUDIBLE ] [ APPLAUSE ] [ LAUGH ] Brit baby. What? A few more hours it'll be all over. Thank god, I'm tired. So how do you guys all feel? We want it to be over. That's all. If they would let me scrub up, I would love to come in the operating room. I would love it. The idea is to take out the tumor and leave the brains behind. [ MUSIC ] It's sort of a misnomer. You're not awake for the entire procedure. For most of the surgery, you're gonna be quite deeply sedated so that you won't be aware [ CROSSTALK ] It's not terribly traumatic for patients. I always reassure them that we're gonna sedate them. We're not gonna put them to sleep except during the opening and the closing. You're going to be really comfortable. You're going to be surprised. One of the most important people in the room is anesthesiologists. No smiling, no laughing. If you go to sleep smiling you wake up smiling. [ LAUGH ] The art part of this is tailoring those medications to the point where the patient is sufficiently sedated that they tolerate the procedure. Timeout, this is. Brittany Capone, she has a left posterior temporal tumor. Everybody agree we're on the left side? Yup. [ MUSIC ] [ INAUDIBLE ] Left sided tumors we we're worried about speech. And it includes both motor speech and receptive speech. Name a word that starts with B. Brittany. Brittany, there ya go. You can hear the sort of a cadence the patient gets into. And if you notice any hesitancy we can, we could hear it instantaneously. Name something you paint with. Paint brush. That's. The most memorable ones now are, are the, the patients who, who carry on interesting conversations with us during surgery. No fennel. I like fennel too. The whole thing is pretty surreal actually. But reassuring all that's reassuring to us. What time is it? It's ten o'clock. You got a date? You got a date? Do I get to see the tumor? No. Not really. It's going to be hard for you to see it. Are you going to put me back to sleep? Very soon, yes. After the scalp is closed and the head is bandaged, we turn off all the medication. And the patient will wake up. Brittany. Brittany. Brittany. Can you open your eyes? Brittany? It's really, quite amazing how quickly they wake up and how bright and alert they are, after several hours of neuro surgery. Show me your teeth. Big smile. Smile, smile, smile. Good. Stick out your tongue. Good. Craniotomy is not a terribly painful operation. It's not like a chest surgery or an abdominal surgery. Can you lift this leg up? The next day you're walking on the ward after a craniotomy. Try to touch my hand here. There's just not much to hurt in the brain. That's the good thing. Today's a sunny day in New York city. [ MUSIC ] Today is a sunny day in New York City. Mmhm. 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