MS Speaks

OTHER => BOOKS => Topic started by: agate on September 16, 2022, 09:51:13 pm

Title: Atul Gawande, BEING MORTAL
Post by: agate on September 16, 2022, 09:51:13 pm
I'm reading BEING MORTAL: MEDICINE AND WHAT MATTERS IN THE END (2014) by Atul Gawande, MD. I don't want to use this forum to plug a book but this book is well worth reading--for anyone with concerns about end-of-life issues.  The author doesn't believe that nursing homes and assisted living facilities are the right way to treat people who need some help with their daily living activities.


http://atulgawande.com/book/being-mortal/
Title: Review of BEING MORTAL by Atul Gawande, MD
Post by: agate on September 26, 2022, 09:25:29 pm
This is from my book reviews blog:


Quote
BEING MORTAL: MEDICINE AND WHAT MATTERS IN THE END (2014)

Although sometimes harrowing, the accounts presented by the author here are meant to illustrate an important point--that modern medical care as practiced in the US (and probably in quite a number of other countries) places too much emphasis on doing everything possible to save a human life.

Dr. Gawande is in favor of more knowledge about when to back off, when to let a patient live out the remaining time in peace, without having to endure the many hospitalizations and ICU stays, surgeries and other procedures that are so often part of a seriously ill person's life towards the end.

He also stresses that sometimes the patient would prefer palliative care to the more drastic measures that could be taken to save his life, but the family, in their zeal for keeping their loved one alive as long as possible manages to overrule that preference.

He cites cases from his own experience and especially from his own family's, closing with a moving account of his father's traditional Hindu funeral.