Some 30 years ago my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer, following surgery that removed her left lung. The cancer had already spread before the surgery, but this fact was not known until after. At some later point she was enrolled for radiation treatments at a local hospital, solely to provide palliative care. She had developed a brain tumor that was causing pain and the treatments would provide relief. An ambulance would come to pick her up, take her to and bring her home from the hospital.
On one occasion, as the medics were about to carry her gurney down the front steps, she grabbed my hand and looked up. Then this woman -in pain and knowing she was dying- looked at me and said, "I guess this is worst thing I've ever put you through." My heart went up in my throat, and all I could think to say was, "Well, I think it might be a little harder on you." Each of us more concerned for the other, and truthfully, I still don't know who was right.
But her example is the antithesis of the self-centered world view described by the OP, and I admire her as much as I miss her. She was of an older and different generation, survivors of the Depression, poverty, wars, and disasters, and it took a lot to faze these people. Later this year, I will observe her 100th birthday.