Being Mortal: Medicine And What Matters In The End (2014) - Plot & Excerpts
Atul Gawande writes as if he's telling a story. He shares his historical anecdotes and personal experiences about how people cope with growing old and/or reaching the terminal stages of one's illness and life. He notes his own thoughts while he and other healthcare workers, including hospice physicians and nurses, interact with patients, their families, and other physicians.The beginning of the book, Gawande focuses more on the geriatric side of care -- how people age and the status of our current healthcare system and how it cares for the elderly. He uses a bit of psychology to explain the mind of an elderly human -- about independence and giving meaning to life. This part of the book was a bit slow reading for me. If this happens to you, please do keep reading on, the second part becomes more interesting (especially for me because he brought up many hematology/oncology patients).Then he delves into end-of-life care, with a lot of praise for the hospice/palliative care physicians and nurses, sharing even his own father's experience of growing old and ultimately dying. In either of these situations, be it growing old or reaching terminal stages of illness, Gawande wants patients and their families as well as physicians to ask: What is our understanding about the disease and its course? What does the patient really want in this short (or long) time he/she has remaining? What are the trade-offs? And then from there, decide which treatment (or lack thereof) would lead us to those goals.Gawande brings about perspectives as a physician, a family member, and as a patient and what we can do to focus on what the patient really wants. It's not always about extending one's life. Most of the time it's about how they live the end of their life, because as you will find out when you read the book, a lot of the time, an experience can be greatly skewed by how good (or bad) the ending was. This is a beautiful meditation on--as the subtitle says--what matters. Looking at people's choices as they near the end of life, it becomes a brilliant reflection on life itself. Just one of the many eye-opening revelations: "the systems we've devised [to care for the elderly] were almost always designed to solve some other problem." That barely gives you a taste of the revelations throughout this book. Recommended for all mortals (and, yes, that means you!)
What do You think about Being Mortal: Medicine And What Matters In The End (2014)?
A powerful read especially if you're dealing with aging parents or terminally ill loved ones.
—Medusaeyes
Important book that will change the way you think about the end of life, and what matters.
—ANXX
Tough read but well worth it. Thought provoking on a subject we don't like to face.
—sup
