Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End (edició 2014)

4.5 stars

Hooooboy, this book is kind of tough, especially the first part. The litany of things that naturally happen to the human body as it ages is pretty damned depressing. And that's if everything goes well. If you have any sort of illness or infirmity, it just gets worse.

Thankfully, it progressed to a happier note, namely that we need to de-medicalize aging and death. Stop and consider that just because there is a medical procedure/treatment/etc. for an illness, that doesn't mean we should use it. There's no one right answer for everyone. But I liked what the author learned from the Hospice people, about asking the individual what they want out of their life right now, and how they want their end to be handled.

I think this should be required reading for every human, but especially those with elderly relatives who will reaching this point, and the tough questions will need to be answered.

I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator was very good. ( )

Vital Questions at the End
Review of the Metropolitan Books hardcover edition (2014)
Whenever serious sickness or injury strikes and your body or mind breaks down, the vital questions are the same: What is your understanding of the situation and its potential outcomes? What are your fears and what are your hopes? What are the trade-offs you are willing to make and not willing to make? And what is the course of action that best serves this understanding? - quote from Being Mortal
Surgeon Atul Gawande does an extraordinary job in this book with examining senior and elder care and giving examples of the various situations and thinking that has evolved in the past century or so. The examples are primarily from the United States where Gawande practices (in Boston), but there are some constrasts with other locations such as India and the Netherlands included.

The primary thesis is that modern medicine may often be adding to a prolonged suffering of a patient when presenting the treatment options and that asking the right questions would instead assist them in make a better quality of the end of life decision. This is starkly brought home in various examples, but the one that sticks in my mind is the patient that said that whatever option would allow them to "watch football on TV and eat chocolate ice cream" would be their preferred choice. The answer may seem banal, but it may be the simplest final enjoyments that we can have that can make the difference.

This is not an easy book to read at any time, but it is certainly better to read it before you need it. It took me almost two months to get through it with some library renewals in between. Having had recent end of life situations with parents and relatives made it harder for me. I still realized that there were important lessons conveyed by Gawande and that it was admirable that he was able to capture and distill them as well as he did in this overview.

Thanks to Karan & the Peterborough Hospice Book Club for the information about this book and to Liisa for the PBS Frontline documentary link!

Trivia and Link
PBS Frontline did a documentary film about the topic of Being Mortal with author Atul Gawande and you can watch it on YouTube here. ( )

I received this book by coincidence in my Book Riot Quarterly box, but Gawande's article "Letting Go" has stuck with me for years after reading it in the New Yorker. I'd recommend the whole book (the essay is included), but the article can be found here:

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/08/02/letting-go-2

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I think anyone who who might have to help loved ones deal with their deaths in the future, or who may one day be faced with their own mortality, will find this book enormously interesting and helpful. You know who you are. ( )

Everyone needs to read this book. ( )