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. 2020 Dec 14;8:e10516. doi: 10.7717/peerj.10516

Table 4. Quotations regarding communication, symptom control, professional support and perceived experience of death.

Main Theme Quotes Oncological Patients Quotes Non-Oncological Patients
1. Communication and Information ”We lacked quite a lot of information about everything that was happening, of course...what was happening to my husband was no mystery, it had a name and it was cancer...and people with cancer die...it is another stage, it doesn’t have to be prettified or referred to as “his situation”...” (Oncological, C02). …”I remember two doctors came out and approached us to give us information about what was happening …The doctors looked at us and said that my uncle had worsened and that he had to be better controlled …that they were going to transfer him to the ICU and that he would be better controlled there …I thought…well if he is better in the ICU, well, better …I never thought he was going to die there …” (Non-oncological, C20).
2. Professional support …”My husband spent almost the whole of the disease at home, and in the end it was a doctor and a nurse who came home to see him …” (Oncological, C03).
…”My father was diagnosed with prostate cancer for four years and died two months ago. He was at home, attended by the palliative care team, until he had to be hospitalized …” (Oncological, C07)
…”We had oxygen at home and a nurse came every week to see how he was. To be honest, the nurse of the healthcare center was very good because she came to see him when she could for his controls …” (Non-oncological, C05).
3. Symptom Control ”Day after day going to the emergency department...and they didn’t tell him anything or give him any solution for what he had. My father has always been very strong, he has never complained about anything, but it was complicated because he complained a lot, his belly was very swollen, and he urinated blood... We were waiting for him to get surgery for some cysts he had in his bladder and that’s why they didn’t tell him or do anything...he had to wait for the day of the surgery. They only prescribed morphine to ease the pain a bit …“ (Oncological, C01). ”First he began not being able to breathe properly and it got worse with time. He had a lung disease that worsened over time. The doctor prescribed oxygen to have at home, because he was often suffocated …” (Non-oncological, C18).
”My grandmother always complained about stomachache, a lot of pain, and her belly was always swollen. It was almost 6 years of pain in her abdomen...” (Non-oncological, C16).