In Being Mortal, bestselling author Atul Gawande tackles the hardest challenge of his profession: how medicine can not only improve life but also the process of its ending Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming birth, injury, and infectious disease from harrowing to manageable. But in the inevitable condition of aging and death, the goals of medicine seem too frequently to run … counter to the interest of the human spirit. Nursing homes, preoccupied with safety, pin patients into railed beds and wheelchairs. Hospitals isolate the dying, checking for vital signs long after the goals of cure have become moot. Doctors, committed to extending life, continue to carry out devastating procedures that in the end extend suffering. Gawande, a practicing surgeon, addresses his profession’s ultimate limitation, arguing that quality of life is the desired goal for patients and families. Gawande offers examples of freer, more socially fulfilling models for assisting the infirm and dependent elderly, and he explores the varieties of hospice care to demonstrate that a person’s last weeks or months may be rich and dignified. Full of eye-opening research and riveting storytelling, Being Mortal asserts that medicine can comfort and enhance our experience even to the end, providing not only a good life but also a good end.
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Once again Dr. Gawande has written about a subject that has a profound effect on everyone. His organization and presentation of the material gives everyone a better grasp of dealing with end of life issues. Thank you, Dr. Gawande, and please keep writing!
If all doctors treated their patience this way it would be wonderful.
Great book about aging and how to give dignity to those we love as time passes.
This is a must read for people contemplating the last years of their lives or the last years of their relatives’ lives. It has practical and humane suggestions for making those years bearable as people get more infirm. And for those facing a mortal disease, there’s a lot of wisdom about treatment paths to take. It won’t make anyone live longer, …
Discusses a difficult topic in an accessible and anecdotal way.
Everyone, whether in medicine or not should read.
Excellent take on end-of-life issues
This book was so enlightening that 25% of the way through, I ordered the book on Amazon and have referred it to everyone I know. We are all mortal, and need to come to grips with life’s realities. Great hearted writer. Clear and easy to understand. Read it for your own sake!
A must read for any age, not just older folks.
Great information and insight.
Superb definition of COURAGE.
Aging, ailing and dying is a difficult subject, but the doctor writes well as he
explains and explores. He uses real-life examples to illustrate aging, explain how we arrived at our current situation, and describe the options we have even at our deathbeds.
I had been taking care of my aging mother who passed away in June. This was the most important book I have ever read. I only wish I had read it five years ago!
Gives a person a lot to think about when aging and/or sickly. Important topic.
Gawande gives us a realistic view of life for the debilitated, aging and diseased seniors when their only option is a nursing home. He urges us to listen to others so we can assist them in choosing the habitat they desire rather than the reginated nursing home where choices are the staff’s and the patient is an object not a human with needs and …
A book everyone should read – especially those in healthcare or those who utilize healthcare.
Hopefully, old age will come to us all and when it does…
The first half of this book was very informative and a good precursor of how nursing homes and assisted living facilities came into being. In my opinion it shows where we were, where we are now, and most important where we could go in the near future. The second half was on a more personal note, with some very sad and true stories about people …
This book shines a light on a topic our whole society chooses to ignor. Each of us is likely to live long enough to be unable to take care of ourselves. This book will help you plan for that time.
Aging and dying isn’t a topic we like to discuss but the book addresses these issues in an interesting and informative way. Good to read before you are in the mist of these hard desicions about death and how you want to live out your final days.
Great help in dealing with the reality of having an elderly parent.
A friend of mine mentioned to me when in conversation I mentioned that my father-in-law was in hospice that her father had strongly recommended that she and her three siblings read this book as he was facing end-of-life issues. My father-in-law did not last much longer and I had barely started reading this book, which I already had purchased for …