Cancer in Adolescence: "My teenage son was going through spiritual distress."

Robin Kanarek, mother of David who had leukemia, talks about the acute spiritual distress that her14-year old son experienced during the isolation required following the stem cell transplant. "He was questioning what was going on; his mortality" She references the work of Elizabeth Kubler Ross who recognized that teenagers won't discuss such things with their parents. She stresses that adults don't properly acknowledge the spiritual lives of adolescents living with illness. Palliative care helps with that.