Terminal event

No, it's not something that happens in an airport, it's the phrase that the Surgical PA (which I presume means "surgical physician's assistant") uses to lay the psychological foundation before telling you that you must decide if your beloved wife is going to die.

The management of breaking the bad news would be interesting to study and reflect upon if it wasn't happening to me. They used a committee approach, consisting of the surgeon, his PA, the oncologist, and a social worker. The latter was a woman, to add a dash of estrogen to deliberation. They were pretty efficient and practiced without being too cold or detached. They needed to put rational and emotional into synch, while not appropriating decisional authority to themselves. Not a trivial achievement, especially on regular basis.