Years ago, my sister lost her newborn son to a birth defect. She knew about the defect prior to his birth, and had been assured that everything would be fine. Unfortunately, within hours of his birth, there were other complications, and an additional undetected defect that meant he had no chance of survival. The problem was that my sister refused to accept that her baby would die within 24 hours.
What do you do when a patient is in denial and refuses to accept such a grim prognosis? How do you make a patient understand when there is no hope?