Life and Death in the ICU

The Province | Cheryl Chan
ICU doctor and Head of BC Transplant Dr. Greg Grant shakes the hand of former patient Julian Recto inside St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver.
Photograph by: Arlen Redekop , PROVINCE

In the dying light of a May evening, Julian Recto had his last rites.

The 22-year-old, mere weeks away from graduation, lay in an intensive-care bed at St. Paul’s Hospital, hooked up to a ventilator.

As the priest anointed Julian’s palms and forehead with oil and delivered the sacrament, Julian’s mom Giselda, brother Jordan, and other loved-ones laid their hands on him and prayed.

“I was praying for him to survive,” recalls Giselda.

She couldn’t hold back the tears running down her cheeks, but fought to keep it together. “Even though Julian was sedated, he can still hear. I didn’t want him to hear me crying.”

Traditionally called the last rites, the sacrament is meant to comfort and strengthen a sick person’s soul to face death without fear. In recent practice, it also serves as a prayer for healing for the critically ill.

It was only nine days before when a healthy Julian watched a Whitecaps game at B.C. Place, a birthday present for him and his twin, Jordan.

Oddly, Jordan was sick at the time, hospitalized with pneumonia at Richmond Hospital.

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