一本医生用生命最后两年所写的书

一本医生用生命最后两年所写的书 【翻译】      

Paul Kalanithi, writer and neurosurgeon, dies at 37. Paul Kalanithi wrote essays for The New York Times and Stanford Medicine reflecting on being a physician and a patient, the human experience of facing death, and the joy he found despite terminal illness.

作家和神经外科医生Paul Kalanithi于2015年去世，享年37岁. Paul Kalanithi曾为“纽约时报”和斯坦福医学杂志撰写文章, 反映了同时作为一名医生和一名身患绝症的病人, 是如何发现快乐和面对死亡的生命历程.

 Stanford neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi, MD, who wrote eloquently and movingly about facing mortality after being diagnosed with lung cancer, died of the disease March 9. He was 37.

斯坦福大学神经外科医生保罗卡拉西尼（Paul Kalanithi）在2015年3月9日死于肺癌，终年37岁. 在被查出患癌之后, 他雄辩动人地谈到了如何面对死亡。

 Kalanithi, who had recently completed his neurosurgery residency at the Stanford University School of Medicine and become a first-time father, was an instructor in the Department of Neurosurgery and fellow at the Stanford Neurosciences Institute.

Kalanithi最近在斯坦福大学医学院完成了他的神经外科住院医生的训练, 并成为了第一任父亲，他是神经外科的讲师和斯坦福神经科学研究所的fellow。

 “We are all devastated by the tragedy of his sudden illness and untimely demise,” said Gary Steinberg, MD, PhD, professor and chair of neurosurgery. “Paul spent seven years with us. He’s very much part of our neurosurgical family. It affects us like a death in a closely knit family.”

“我们都被他突如其来的疾病和过早逝去的悲剧而伤心欲绝”神经外科教授Steinberg说: “保罗和我们待了七年. 他是我们神经外科大家庭中的一员. 这个事件对我们的影响就像在一个紧密结合的家庭中有一员逝去一样”.

 Kalanithi’s essays, “How Long Have I Got Left?” for The New York Times and “Before I Go” for Stanford Medicine, reflected his insights on grappling with mortality, his changing perception of time and the meaning he continued to experience despite his illness.

Kalanithi为纽约时报书写的文章“我还能活多久?”和为斯坦福医学杂志写的文章“在我离去之前”反映了他对与死亡的见解, 以及他在生病后对时间和生命历程的新的见解.

 He closed his Stanford Medicine essay with words for his infant daughter: “When you come to one of the many moments in life when you must give an account of yourself, provide a ledger of what you have been, and done, and meant to the world, do not, I pray, discount that you filled a dying man’s days with a sated joy, a joy unknown to me in all my prior years, a joy that does not hunger for more and more, but rests, satisfied. In this time, right now, that is an enormous thing.”

他用他写给他仍然在婴儿期的女儿的话语结束了他在斯坦福医学杂志上的文章：“当你在生活中有时间来回味你的许多重要时刻时，当你必须列出你做过的事情对这世界有什么意义时，我祈祷，你不要忽略你曾使一个垂死男人在他的余生中充满喜悦. 这是我以前并不知道的一种快乐, 我并不渴望这种快乐永远存在, 但是感到安静满足. 现在, 这是我生活的一件重大的事情。

 “In a March 10 Facebook post, Suman Kalanithi, one of Kalanithi’s brothers, wrote, “Yesterday my brother Paul passed away about two years after being diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer. He did so with customary bravery and poise, and died in peace on his own terms with his family around him. My brother achieved more in his short life than what most people do in twice that time. He was a good doctor, a good husband, a good father and a good man. I am extremely proud of him, both in life and in death. Rest in peace, my beloved brother.”

在2015年3月10日的Facebook帖子中，Kalanithi的兄弟之一Suman Kalanithi写道：“在被诊断患有转移性肺癌大约两年后, 我的兄弟保罗于昨天离开了我们. 他以特有的勇敢和沉着，在家人的围绕下宁静过世了. 尽管许多人有着两倍于他的生命时间，我的兄弟在他短暂的一生中取得的成就比大多数人的要多得多. 他是一位好医生, 好丈夫, 好父亲, 一位好人. 无论他是活着还是死去, 我都为他感到无比自豪. 安息吧, 我心爱的兄弟”.

 Undergraduate years at Stanford

 Kalanithi was born in New York, moving at age 10 with his family to Kingman, Arizona. He went to college at Stanford, where he was involved in Stanford Sierra Camp and the Leland Stanford Jr. University Marching Band. He graduated in 2000 with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English literature and a bachelor’s in human biology.

Kalanithi出生于纽约市, 10岁时与家人一起搬到亚利桑那州【莫哈维县】的金曼市。然后到斯坦福大学读书, 在那里他参与了斯坦福塞拉利昂营地和Leland Stanford Jr.大学游行乐队. 他于2000年毕业，获得英国文学的学士和硕士学位以及人类生物学的学士学位。

 “If you asked me when I was 17 what I would be doing with my life, I would have said, ‘Oh, I’d definitely be a writer.’ For me, literature was always a powerful reflecting tool for thinking about life,” Kalanithi said in an interview for a Stanford Medicine magazine video. “But I found after I completed my undergraduate studies and thought about what I was really passionate about, medicine was in fact the perfect place.”

 “如果你在我17岁时问我打算将来怎样生活，我会说，'哦，我肯定会成为一名作家。' 对我来说，文学总是一个思考生活的有力工具， “Kalanithi在接受斯坦福医学杂志视频采访时说 “但是在我完成本科学习后并思考我真正热爱的事情后，我发现，医学实际上是一个使人完美的领域。”

 He next studied the history and philosophy of science and medicine at the University of Cambridge, earning a master’s degree, before attending the Yale School of Medicine. In 2007, he graduated from Yale cum laude, winning the Lewis H. Nahum Prize, awarded for his research on Tourette’s syndrome, and membership in the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society. At Yale, he also met classmate Lucy Goddard, whom he married in 2006.

接下来, 他在剑桥大学学习了科学哲学和医学史, 在被耶鲁大学医学院录取之前, 他获得了剑桥的硕士学位.  2007年, 他以优异成绩毕业于耶鲁大学医学院, 因对Tourette综合症的研究获得Lewis H. Nahum奖学金，并成为医学生荣誉学会的会员. 在耶鲁大学，他还和女同学Lucy Goddard从相遇发展到相爱，他们于2006年结婚。

 He returned to Stanford for a residency in neurological surgery and a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience, developing optogenetic techniques in the laboratories of Krishna Shenoy, PhD, and Karl Deisseroth, MD, PhD. He authored more than 20 scientific publications and received the American Academy of Neurological Surgery’s highest award for research.

接着他回到斯坦福大学接受神经外科住院医师和神经科学博士后训练，在Krishna Shenoy博士和Karl Deisseroth医生的实验室开发光遗传学技术. 他参与撰写了20多篇科学论文, 并【于2011年】获得了美国神经外科学会为住院医生设立的研究奖。

 Cancer diagnosis

 But then, in Kalanithi’s sixth year of residency, his weight dropped precipitously, and he developed night sweats, unremitting back pain and a cough. In May 2013, Kalanithi, who had never smoked, was diagnosed with stage-4 non-small-cell EGFR-positive lung cancer.

但是，在Kalanithi做住院医生的第六年, 他的体重急剧下降, 出现夜间盗汗, 持续背痛和咳嗽不止. 2013年5月, 从未吸烟的Kalanithi被诊断已经患有4期非小细胞EGFR阳性的肺癌.

 His first reaction was to prepare to die and to encourage Lucy to remarry, he wrote in his New York Times essay. But his cancer responded to treatment, he regained strength and he returned to work in late 2013, completing his residency last year. He and Lucy also decided they wanted to have a child. Elizabeth Acadia “Cady” Kalanithi was born on July 4, 2014.

他在纽约时报的一篇文章中写道, 他的第一个反应是准备死去并鼓励Lucy再婚. 但是治疗抑制了癌症的进展, 他的体力得以恢复, 并于2013年底重返工作岗位。2014年, 他完成了住院医生训练. 他和Lucy还决定过生一个孩子, 于是他的孩子Elizabeth Acadia“Cady”Kalanithi于2014年7月4日出生了.

 In addition to returning to surgery, Kalanithi shared his reflections on illness and medicine, authoring essays in The New York Times, The Paris Review and Stanford Medicine, and participating in interviews for media outlets and public forums.

除了重返外科手术台外,  Kalanithi还撰写文章分享了他对疾病和医学的反思。他把这些文章发表在“纽约时报”，“巴黎评论”和“斯坦福医学”上, 并接受媒体和公共论坛的采访。

 Despite a relapse in the spring of 2014, Kalanithi continued to speak to the public and write, including working on a book.

尽管2014年春天他的癌症复发了，Kalanithi继续向公众发表讲话并写作，包括写了一本书。

 His essays tapped an outpouring of gratitude from readers — from young people who had lost parents to seniors facing their own mortality, to teachers desiring to share his essay with students. “It completely surprised me that it resonated with so many people,” Kalanithi wrote of the response to the Times piece in a 2014 San Francisco Magazine essay. “I still get an email nearly every day from someone with heart disease or depression or another medical illness, saying that it helped clarify his or her own situation. The second, and really pleasing, development was the number of doctors who emailed to say that they planned to give the article to their patients or incorporate it into medical school curricula to help students understand the human impact of disease. That was really touching.”

他的文章引起了读者的强烈反响, 这包括从失去父母的年轻人到面临死亡的老年人,以及希望与学生分享他的文章的老师们. “使我感到非常惊讶的是, 它引起了如此多人的共鸣” Kalanithi在2014年旧金山杂志的一篇文章中写到了对时报部分的回应: “我几乎每天都会收到患有心脏病或抑郁症或其他疾病的人的电子邮件，说该书有助于他们认识自己的情况. 其次, 还有一个非常令人愉快的进展是: 许多医生发来电子邮件说, 他们计划将这篇文章提供给患者，或纳入医学院课程以帮助学生了解人对疾病的影响.  那令我十分感动”.

 This letter from a reader in response to the Stanford Medicine essay is representative: “Dr. Kalanithi, I could not hold my tears while reading your story. It is a sad story, but at the same time it is an amazing story to share. These are the type of stories that stop us, and make us re-think life and the way that we are living it. Your story has touched me deeply in a very positive way.”

一个读者在回应斯坦福医学杂志文章的来信说得很有代表性:“Kalanithi医生, 在读你的故事时我忍住不哭 但仍然泪留满面. 这是一个令人悲伤的故事, 但也是一个令人惊奇的故事. 这些故事在我们的脑海里久久徘佪, 让我们重新思考人生和生活方式. 你的故事积极乐观，深深地打动了我。

  Kalanithi appeared to live by his words. After his diagnosis, he continued to joke, and laugh, enjoy the company of family, friends and colleagues, spend time appreciating nature and go wild at football games. He also helped raise money for lung cancer awareness. As top fundraiser (due, he said, to an overwhelming response from his friends, family and colleagues — including many from Stanford), he won the Chris Draft Family Foundation’s Lung Cancer Survivors Super Bowl Challenge, which landed him and family in Arizona for the 2015 Super Bowl.

Kalanithi就像他所说的那样生活. 在他的肺癌被诊断之后, 他仍然幽默玩笑和开怀大笑,享受家人, 朋友和同事的陪伴, 欣赏徇丽多姿的自然风光，继续在足球比赛中狂奔.  他还帮助肺癌基金会筹集资金. 作为顶级筹款人(由于他的朋友,家人和同事 - 包括斯坦福大学的许多人的热烈捐赠), 他赢得了克里斯汇票家庭基金会颁发的肺癌幸存者超级碗赛的入场券, 这让他和家人来到亚利桑那州观看了 2015年的超级碗。

参考文献

 英文原文是斯坦福医学杂志编辑ROSANNE SPECTOR在2015年为Kalanithi新书发行所写的记念文章的一部分。至今读来， 仍然十分感人。