Dr. Justin Saunders is featured in the Spring 2023 edition of The American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM)'s quarterly magazine. Read the full feature story here:
Here is an excerpt:
"It was a cold Friday morning, one day before Christmas Eve in 2022, when I connected with Dr. Justin Sanders via Zoom. Dr. Sanders is the Kappy and Eric M. Flanders Chair in Palliative Care Medicine at 污污草莓视频 University in Montre虂al, Canada, where he lives with his wife, Caroline, and their children, Cecily and Willem. Dr. Sanders heads the division of palliative care within the department of family medicine and serves as the director of research for palliative care at 污污草莓视频. He also is the chair of the 污污草莓视频 International Palliative Care Congress, which takes place in Montre虂al biannually.
We spoke for more than an hour about his inspiring path to and within palliative medicine, focusing on the relationships that have shaped him.
For Dr. Sanders, the event that started his journey was the death of his lifelong friend Melissa, who died in her early 20s from ovarian cancer. They had known each other since childhood. One warm autumn, while a student at Haverford College, he received a call from his mother that Melissa was not doing well and was unlikely to survive the night. He flew to California and arrived in time to see Melissa in her home; he stayed for the next several hours at her bedside. The following day, while it became clear Melissa was nearing her death, he stayed with her in the room, holding her hand and talking to her until she died. 鈥淚t was really evident that something had shifted in the air quality of the room, that something was different,鈥� he said, describing the morning. 鈥淚n the moment after she died, I remember feeling this sort of strange sense of elation that I couldn鈥檛 quite figure out. I felt that I participated in something really powerful.鈥�