--- title: "Doctor Tells Man He’s Going to Die via Telepresence Robot" description: "A California family is outraged that a doctor told their relative he was going to die imminently — via a telepresence robot. " date: "2019-03-09" modified: "2019-03-09" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/doctor-death-telepresence-robot" categories: - "Robotics" - "Robots and Machines" tags: - "medicine" - "mortality" - "robots" - "telepresence" --- # Doctor Tells Man He’s Going to Die via Telepresence Robot ![A California family is outraged that a doctor told their relative he was going to die imminently — via a telepresence robot. ]() *\Image: Pexels\* ## Terminal Diagnosis A California family is outraged that a doctor told their elderly relative that his lungs were failing that that he was going to die imminently — via a telepresence robot. "You might not make it home," the doctor at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center told the patient, according to [local television channel *KTVU*](), which broke the story. The patient, Ernest Quintana, died two days after arriving at the hospital, [according to the]() *Chicago Tribune —* but the impersonal manner in which his doctor delivered the news to him and his family illustrate the strange ways that medicine is changing as technology and automation make their way into the hospital system*.* ## Do No Harm Quintana's granddaughter, Annalisia Wilharm, was there when the telepresence robot arrived. She was alarmed by the lack of a personal touch. "I was going to lose my grandfather," she told *KTVU.* "We knew that this was coming and that he was very sick. But I don't think somebody should get the news delivered that way. It should have been a human being come in." ## "Unusual Circumstance" Kaiser Permanente, for its part, assumed some responsibility for the incident in a statement. But it fell short of saying more about when, and under what circumstances, its doctors use telepresence robots to provide care for patients. "Our health care staff receive extensive training in the use of telemedicine, but video technology is not used as a replacement for in-person evaluations and conversations with patients," reads the statement, which was [published in full]() by *KTVU*. "This is a highly unusual circumstance. We regret falling short in meeting the patient's and family's expectations in this situation and we will use this as an opportunity to review our practices and standards with the care team." **READ MORE:** [Doctor tells patient he doesn't have long to live through hospital robot's video screen]() \[*KTVU*\] **More on robot medicine:** [Your Future Doctor May Not be Human. This Is the Rise of AI in Medicine.]() ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()