Dr. Ewa Izabela Kraish, MD

I am writing this review based on my family's experience with Dr. Kraish in the ICU at Huntington Memorial Hospital during the final days of my father's life. This was an incredibly difficult and complicated situation, and our family was already facing the heartbreaking possibility that my father might not survive. What made an already devastating situation even more traumatic was the way we felt we were treated by Dr. Kraish. During our conversations, Dr. Kraish made statements that left us feeling as though we had somehow "ordered" our father's death or needed to "accept the consequences" of our decisions. She questioned us by saying, "What do you want to do with him? You already accepted comfort care," which made us feel as though choosing comfort care at one point meant we had chosen to end our father's life and were no longer allowed to reconsider. We felt pressured and bullied into continuing comfort care rather than being compassionately presented with our options. When we asked… questions and tried to understand the situation and what could be done, we felt that Dr. Kraish became angry and frustrated with us rather than taking the time to explain things. Her demeanor felt physically and verbally aggressive from the beginning of the conversation. We were made to feel as though our questions and desire to understand our father's condition were an inconvenience. At one point, we felt threatened with the possibility of intubating our father again. This was an incredibly frightening thing to hear while we were already struggling to make decisions about his life. We needed a physician who would calmly explain the risks, benefits, and options available to us. Instead, we felt pressured and intimidated. We ultimately reversed the decision for comfort care because we wanted to continue treatment and give our father every possible chance. After we made that decision, our family felt that the level of supportive care he had previously been receiving was not resumed. To our understanding, he was not restarted on antibiotics, nutrition, fluids, or other supportive measures that had previously been part of his care. He received oxygen only because I insisted on it. From our perspective, the primary treatments being provided were pain medication and a heparin drip. This left our family with the devastating impression that, because we had changed our minds about comfort care, our father was essentially being left to die rather than receiving the care we believed we had requested. It felt as though our decision to reverse comfort care was met with disapproval, and that our father was no longer being treated with the same level of effort and support. What was also deeply upsetting was seeing Dr. Kraish casually chatting at the nurses' station while my father was dying in his room. When I approached her, I felt as though I was treated like I was bothering her. I was told that she had approximately 30 other patients to care for. I understand that ICU physicians have demanding workloads and many patients who need their attention. However, in that moment, my father was dying, and our family needed to feel that his life mattered and that our concerns were being taken seriously. Instead, we felt dismissed, blamed, bullied, and shamed during one of the most painful moments our family has ever experienced. We understand that ICU medicine involves extremely difficult decisions and that not every outcome can be changed. We also understand that physicians have to make difficult medical judgments. However, families facing the death of a loved one deserve compassion, patience, clear communication, and respect when asking questions and trying to understand their options. Our experience with Dr. Kraish was deeply traumatic. The way we were spoken to and treated during the final days of my father's life is something our family will never forget.