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Asfand Yar Cheema shares Dr. Manni Mohyuddin’s reflections on professional grief in oncology

Asfand Yar Cheema and Manni Mohyuddin -

May 6, 2025, 18:27

Asfand Yar Cheema shares Dr. Manni Mohyuddin’s reflections on professional grief in oncology

Asfand Yar Cheema, Resident physician at the Cleveland Clinic, shared a post on LinkedIn:

“As an internal medicine resident, I often find myself in the delicate space between science and soul – where we carry not just a stethoscope, but the weight of stories, struggles, and sometimes, the silence that follows a patient’s last breath.

Dr. Manni Mohyuddin’s recent piece on Medscape, ‘When Patients Die: A Myeloma Specialist Grieves,’ is one of the most honest and beautifully written reflections I’ve read on the emotional complexities of oncology. He gives voice to something many physicians quietly endure: professional grief — the mourning that lingers when a patient we’ve fought alongside transitions to hospice, and then… disappears from our world.

Empathy, as Dr. Mohyuddin reminds us, is messy, vulnerable, and deeply human. It means choosing to stay emotionally present, even when we know the outcome is no longer in our hands. Yet therein lies the dilemma: how do we stay open-hearted without breaking ourselves?

Especially in hem/Onc, and really in all of medicine, this balance is hard. We are trained to heal, to act, to treat. But sometimes, the most healing thing we can do is simply be there — to hold space, to check in, to remind our patients and their families that they are not alone, even when medicine can offer no more.

This narrative inspires me to reimagine our roles not just as clinicians, but as companions in one of life’s most sacred transitions. And while the grief is real, so is the honor. We get to walk alongside people in their most vulnerable moments. That, too, is a privilege.”

Read “When Patients Die: A Myeloma Specialist Grieves“ here.

More posts featuring Asfand Yar Cheema on OncoDaily.