Sam Blackman

speaker

85 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2026 last heard 21 Jul

Sam Blackman’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.

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The Moth · Walking the Walk: The Moth Radio Hour · 21 Jul 2026 podcast

So it was 10 o'clock at night, and for the next four hours, we did our job.

We gave medicines to help her agonal breathing and to alleviate any pain, and when we couldn't do any more, we stood by the door and we bore witness.

The nurse went in and checked on her and came out and said that she thought that Brianna had stopped breathing.

And the attending physician said to me that I should go and pronounce her dead because the mom knew me and appeared to trust me.

And I said, all right, but I've never done this before.

I didn't know what to expect.

So I quietly went into the room and I said, I need to examine Brianna one last time.

And then I performed the ritual.

I felt for the absence of a pulse.

I put my stethoscope on her chest and I listened for a full 60 seconds for the absence of a heartbeat.

And I said to her mother, I'm so sorry for your loss.

And I noted silently the time of death.

And as I was getting ready to leave the room, I turned to her and I said, is there anything I can do for you?

And she paused and said, could you pray with me?

And I hesitated because I'm a lapsed Jew from New Jersey and I don't really pray and I don't really believe in God.

And frankly, pretending to pray in the face of a dead child seemed like the absolutely wrong thing to do.

But then, there in that moment, it dawned on me that this wasn't about me.

Brianna's mother needed me to be the doctor that she saw me as and this was the opportunity for me to be the doctor that I wanted to be.

And so there in that room, lit just by silent glowing monitors, I had the one truly beautiful moment for myself in medicine.

where a stranger held my hands and we stood over the body of her daughter.

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