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#1 New York Times Bestseller 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 shows how the ultimate goal is not a good death but a good life—all the way to the very end.
#1 New York Times Bestseller 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 shows how the ultimate goal is not a good death but a good life—all the way to the very end.
Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.
Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.
Atul Gawande is the author of several bestselling books: Complications, a finalist for the National Book Award; Better; The Checklist Manifesto, and Being Mortal. He is also a surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, a staff writer for The New Yorker, and a professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health. He has won the Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science, a MacArthur Fellowship, and two National Magazine Awards. In his work in public health, he is Founder and Chair of Ariadne Labs, a joint center for health systems innovation, and Lifebox, a nonprofit organization making surgery safer globally. He is also chair of Haven, where he was CEO from 2018-2020. He and his wife have three children and live in Newton, Massachusetts.
Gawande presents problems and potential solutions to the question of how we can best address our mortality. Through stories and research he shows that we are shifting from a highly medicalized end of life to an experience in which we can have some sort of meaning. Surgeon, writer, and public health researcher Gawande asks how we can live out our later years in the way we desire and how best to talk to our health-care providers to achieve that. He also discusses how health-care providers can and should approach talking to aging patients and their families. Robert Petkoff reads the book in a clear, distinct voice. The book is written from the first person and so the narration comes across very well. Listeners will gain great insight into ways of thinking about the important issues of facing mortality. VERDICT An excellent book for everyone but of particular interest to health-care providers and those approaching their later years or caring for the elderly.--Eric Albright, Tufts Univ. Health Sciences Lib., Boston
Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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Robert Petkoff delivers this important essay on how traditional medicine falls short in treating the aged. His changes in pacing and intensity do more than keep the narrative interesting; they convey an emotional tone that moves in perfect sync with the pathos throughout the book. Most doctors and care administrators, Gawande says, want to fix biological problems and usually overlook the boredom, loneliness, and helplessness that make the end-of-life experience so difficult. Citing research on innovative approaches to geriatric care, he shares inspiring stories of caregivers who are breaking free of medical models and bringing life--and better health outcomes--to the way people live their final years. T.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine
