Being Mortal by Atul Gawande ePub Download

July 19, 2022 Popular

Download Being Mortal by Atul Gawande eBook free. The “Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End” is a wonderful book to anyone who has aging parents or loved ones facing illness or who is facing their own mortality.

Description of Being Mortal by Atul Gawande ePub

“Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End” is a wisdom book must-read for anyone who thinks about how one’s life might end, whether in old age, with or without illness or infirmities from disease or must-read for anyone who has parents or loved ones who are entering that phase of life; or better yet, have not as yet entered it but are brave and independent of mind enough to want to think about how to handle it with their loved ones. Atul Gawande is the author of this impressive book. Dr. Gawande provides the most insightful discussion that is very well-written about the end of life issues. Gawande is an outstanding writer who addresses the end of life situations with wisdom, sensitivity, and compassion. Atul books have a wonderful reasoned elegance. This one is that and more. First, he shows us how hard it is to age well in the modern age. One of the key insights is that the usual hierarchy of needs gets flipped. People care more about having meaning and purpose, for being in control of their own lives, than for their safety. The needs for connection and self-determination are paramount. In this first part, we also see how the institutions and innovations intended to improve the aging process can so easily go wrong. The second part shifts from aging to death. This section is mostly about the journeys of a few individuals and the tough conversations that directed their final years, months, and days. We see how hard and how important it is to find the connections between what the individual values and the technical options provided by medicine. We see that things as vague as “don’t do anything risky” can nonetheless be a helpful guide to a surgeon. We are also brought into the final years of the author’s father. The story is personal and humbling. We are not only mortal, but we are also human. An important book for us to read, to discuss with our loved ones and to take action on. This book deserves a wide audience because its audience is all of us.

In this new book Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End, Gawande looks at the problems of the aging population and inevitability of death. He points out that you don’t have to spend much time with the elderly or those with terminal conditions to see how common it is for modern medicine to fail the people it is supposed to be helping. In speaking of eldercare he sadly points out that “Our reluctance to honestly examine the experience of aging and dying has increased the harm and suffering we inflict on people and has denied them the basic comforts they need most”. Many physicians are so hell-bent on preserving the life that they cause horrible and unnecessary suffering. Gawande points out that sometimes in striving to give patients healthy and survival their well-being is neglected. He describes well-being as the reason one wishes to be alive. He looks at the “Dying Role” as the end approaches describing it as the patient’s ability to “share memories, pass on wisdoms and keepsakes, settle relationships, establish legacies and make peace with their God. They want to end their stories on their own terms.” He feels that if people are denied their role, out of obtuseness and neglect, it is cause for everlasting shame. Gawande shares his deep-seated feelings in this book by revealing personal vignettes of how friends and family coped with these powerful and challenging issues. He follows a hospice nurse on her rounds. He discloses how his mother-in-law Alice’s life is changed by taking up residence in a senior facility as the only reasonable option. Senior facilities and nursing homes, even the best run, are often sterile institutions that can cause psychological anguish. He includes how he dealt with the final wishes of his father. It is a melancholy yet empowering picture of a man and physician honoring his father. Atul provides the reader with an understanding that though the end of life care is inevitable there are ways to humanize the process. The patients, their families, the medical professionals are coming to terms with how to better face the decision making processes that will be, in many cases, the last decision. We would recommend being read by all medical students, nurses and us the family members who will share the journey with them. Overall, this is an interesting book on an important topic.