Physicians tending to Cortana Mall have indicated the ailing retail center’s condition has become terminal and that any further attempts to improve its health would ultimately prove fruitless.

A team of doctors overseeing the care of the deteriorating 40-year-old mall unanimously suggested to its owners, Moonbeam Equities, of Las Vegas, that they place Cortana in the care of hospice specialists who will try to make the once-proud retail giant’s final days as comfortable as possible.

“Sadly, there’s nothing we or anyone else can do at this point to save Cortana,” reported Dr. Arnie Ladner, a retail oncologist who’s been treating the sick mall. “Any further treatment would be an act of desperation and would only prolong Cortana’s current, agonizingly miserable condition.”

The grim diagnosis comes in the wake of news Macy’s is closing its Cortana location. It’s the most recent of multiple anchor store losses the shopping center has suffered in the past several years, which Ladner cited as one of the main reasons for the recommendation that Moonbeam Equities initiate end-of-retail-life care for Cortana.

“Cortana was already struggling without its Service Merchandise and Mervyn’s. There’s no way it can survive without a Macy’s, too.”

“Unfortunately, Cortana is suffering from cascading retail failure that no amount of financial dialysis can keep up with,” Ladner explained. “Cortana was already struggling without its Service Merchandise and Mervyn’s. There’s no way it can survive without a Macy’s, too.”

Ladner elaborated, “Anchor stores are a mall’s lifeblood. Without those major tenants to draw and pump retail traffic throughout its sprawling passageways, the smaller stores slowly die off, until you’re left with an empty, hulking corpse.”

Other signs of Cortana’s terminal illness, according to Ladner, are its abnormally high levels of cheap gold peddlers and cellphone kiosks.

While Ladner steered clear of predicting how much longer the mall will be around, he did add that Cortana’s friends and family should take solace in the fact that the massive retail destination had a long, rich life before succumbing to sluggish business in recent years.

As for speculation Cortana could possibly be repurposed — like other deceased retail centers — possibly for industrial, business, or medical uses, Ladner commented, “That’s great if you believe in reincarnation. Personally, I can’t speak to that. I’m just a doctor.”