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Please join us for a presentation of Because I Knew You: How Some Remarkable Sick Kids Healed a Doctor's Soul with Dr. Robert Macauley. Most people associate palliative care with hospice and the end of life, and when they imagine a patient receiving palliative care they think of an older adult. In truth, palliative care is more about living than dying, and--while no children should ever suffer and certainly shouldn't die--over 40,000 children die each year in the United States. An additional half million children live with a "complex chronic condition," which can benefit profoundly from high quality of palliative care. Because I Knew You is a memoir that is the first book to tell the stories of children receiving palliative care, in the mold of recent powerful memoirs that describe the care of adults at the end of life (such as That Good Night by Sunita Puri). From the infant with a supposedly "lethal anomaly" whose parents never gave up on her (and who is now ten years old) to the teenager with cystic fibrosis who plays drums (on oxygen!) for his punk rock band, to the high school senior with cancer whose greatest dream was to see a Broadway show, who managed to do that (as well as meeting the Cake Boss himself, whose show she watched religiously) on the final weekend of her life -- these stories show what palliative care is meant to be.
The book isn't a clinical analysis of patient cases; it is also the author's story, of the pain he experienced as a child, and how these children and their families truly healed his soul. In the process of writing the book, he came to understand not only what drew him to a field that most people don't know exists--and those who do prefer not to think much about--but also the impact his patients and their families had on his life. As he writes in the memoir, when asked why he went into pediatric palliative care, his response is, "Were it not for this work, I wouldn’t know how brave and honest and wise and generous human beings can be.”
Dr. Robert Macauley is the Cambia Health Foundation Endowed Chair in Pediatric Palliative Care at OHSU. As one of only a few hundred pediatricians in the United States specializing in palliative care, over the past twenty years he has cared for children facing serious or life-threatening illness. Because I Knew You: How Some Remarkable Sick Kids Healed a Doctor’s Soul (Chehalem Press, 2025) is the first book to tell the stories of children receiving palliative care. It also describes the profound impact they and their families have had on his life, and the lives of the fellow doctors, nurses, social workers, chaplains, and other staff he works with.
Dr. Macauley received his medical degree (as well as a Master of Divinity) from Yale. He holds graduate degrees in theology from Oxford and writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and is also an Episcopal priest. His comprehensive textbook Ethics in Palliative Care: A Complete Guide was published by Oxford University Press in 2018. He has long been active in Lake Oswego Girls Softball Little League, coaching his daughter for several seasons and currently serving on the Board of Directors.
This program is supported by the Friends of the Lake Oswego Public Library and offered by Lake Oswego Public Library in cooperation with the Lake Theater & Café. Admission is free and no ticket is required (though food and drink purchase are encouraged to offset the cost to the Lake Theater). Doors open at 6:30pm, the presentation begins at 7:00pm.
The Lake Theater & Café is located at 106 North State Street in Lake Oswego. For more information, contact Alicia Yokoyama at [email protected] or 503-534-4228.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Lake Theater & Cafe, 106 N State St, Lake Oswego, OR 97034-3928, United States
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.
