An elderly man being cared for in a hospital in America was informed he was going to die by a doctor via video link, on what his family have described as a 'robot'.
Ernest Quintana, 78, who was being treated at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Fremont, California, was informed of the tragic news by a doctor on the robot's screen, who told him he only had a few days left to live.
Family friend Julianne Spangler slammed the hospital for its lack of care, saying this was 'not the way to show value and compassion to a patient'.
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Sharing an image on her Facebook page, she wrote: "Please share this... This was regarding a friend's dad a couple of hours ago. This is not the way to show value and compassion to a patient... shame on you Kaiser!
"This is the robot doctor that came into Cathie's father's ICU room late Monday night and told him he has no lungs left, only option is comfort care. Remove the mask helping him breathe and put him on a morphine drip til he dies.
"Thank you Fremont Kaiser for your compassion to a Man who is 100 per cent aware and alert...That robot doctor may be OK for some situations but not to tell a man he is going to die.
"Technology at its best? Had I have been there I would have told him to turn around roll his ass out and send in a human!"
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She goes on to confirm he sadly passed away two days after being admitted to hospital.
Speaking to the BBC, Mr Quintana's granddaughter, Annalisa Wilharm, said: "I look up and there's this robot at the door.
"The next thing I know he's telling him, 'I got these MRI results back and there's no lungs left, there's nothing to work with'. I'm freaking out inside, I'm trying not to cry - I'm trying not to scream because it's just me and him."
She continued: "He just got the worst news of his life without his wife of 58 years."
After arriving at her husband's bedside, Mr Quintana's wife was told by a nurse 'this is our policy, this is how we do things'.
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Michelle Gaskill-Hames, senior vice president for Kaiser Permanente said in a statement to NBC News that it was a 'highly unusual circumstance', explaining: "The evening video tele-visit was a follow-up to earlier physician visits.
"It did not replace previous conversations with patient and family members and was not used in the delivery of the initial diagnosis."
She added: "That said, we don't support or encourage the use of technology to replace the personal interactions between our patients and their care teams - we understand how important this is for all concerned, and regret that we fell short of the family's expectations."
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