Research Catalog

Being mortal : medicine and what matters in the end

Title
Being mortal : medicine and what matters in the end / Atul Gawande.
Author
Gawande, Atul
Publication
New York : Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Company, 2014.
Supplementary Content
  • Additional information at Google Books
  • Staff Review
  • http://www.henryholt.com

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TextRequest in advance R726.8 .G39 2014Off-site

Details

Description
282 pages; 22 cm
Summary
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.
Alternative Title
Medicine and what matters in the end
Subject
  • Terminal care
  • Critical care medicine
  • Aging > Physiological aspects
  • Quality of life
  • Terminal Care
  • Aging > physiology
  • Activities of Daily Living
  • Quality of Life
  • Prognosis
  • Attitude to Death
  • Aged
  • SOCIAL SCIENCE > Death & Dying
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (pages 265-277).
Contents
Introduction -- The independent self -- Things fall apart -- Dependence -- Assistance -- A better life -- Letting go -- Hard conversations -- Courage -- Epilogue.
ISBN
  • 9780805095159
  • 0805095152
  • 9781250076229
  • 1250076226
  • 9781627790550 (canceled/invalid)
  • 1627790551 (canceled/invalid)
LCCN
2014017442
OCLC
  • ocn879416935
  • 879416935
  • SCSB-5764931
Owning Institutions
Columbia University Libraries