... recognising it in some way as a rite of passage

Does in the following description "recognising it in some way as a rite of passage" refer to the doctor's passage to a new level of perception or to the patient's passage from this world to the other?

I remember the first time I saw a cardiac arrest…My principal impression was that it was messy and noisy and sad. At the end of the thing the woman lay there with the clothes shorn unceremoniously from her body, oozing blood from the needle puncture sites, blue, cold and alone. It was the first time that I had ever been present at the moment of someone’s death. I remember being determined to record the event accurately in my mind, recognising it in some way as a rite of passage. By the end of the shift I couldn’t even remember her name. And then you qualify and the whole thing rapidly ceases to hold any mystery. Eventually you see so many that it doesn’t even register. I used to wonder if that might be a bad thing. Now I don’t even wonder about that.