To hope under the most extreme circumstances is an act of defiance that permits a person to live his life on his own terms. It is part of the human spirit to endure and give a miracle a chance to happen.

Hope can be imagined as a domino effect, a chain reaction, each increment making the next increase more feasible... There are moments of fear and doubt that can deflate it.

I had learned that every patient has the right to hope, despite long odds, and it was my role to help nurture that hope.

... omniscience about life and death is not within a physician's purview. A doctor should never write off a person a priori.

True hope has no room for delusion.