Dr. Elizabeth Comen

And I wanted to, you know, say goodbye to her and honor that relationship that we had.

I went to hug her and she was having difficulty breathing and she was in incredible distress.

And we were trying to comfort her with medication and support because, you know, one thing about oncology is we may not be able to cure everybody, but you can always be present for the suffering and you can try to ease that.

And I went to give her a hug and, you know, she was thin, she was frail and she was sweating.

And she said to me, you know, thank you.

And I'm so sorry for sweating on you.

And I thought, my God, this woman has how many words left to say?

How many breaths left?

And she's choosing to apologize to me for sweating.

And it was just such an overwhelming, gut-wrenching moment where I thought, how many women have apologized to me for the most ridiculous things, let alone on their deathbed?

Yes.

And I think it really speaks to that, again, medicine doesn't happen in a vacuum.

These doctor-patient relationships reflect our culture and our society.

And women notoriously apologize.

And we have absorbed tremendous shame about our bodies.

It isn't just people with, you know, poor access to health care.

This is some of the most powerful, incredible...

royalty, literally people that we've seen.

And it is this common thread, no matter where you're from, no matter what you do, no matter how much money you have, no matter what your resources are, I guarantee you almost all women in a doctor's office will apologize for something about their body.

And I think that, you know, it's terrible.