Being mortal : medicine and what matters in the end

Atul Gawande.
Additional titles:
  • Medicine and what matters in the end
    • Author/Creator:
    Gawande, Atul author
    Resource Type:
    Book
    Publication:
    New York : Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Company, 2014.
    Edition:
    First edition
    Physical Description:
    282 pages ; 22 cm

    Availability

    Charles Library - Leisure Reading (1st floor)

    Call Number Description Type Availability
    GAW

    Charles Library - BookBot

    Call Number Description Type Availability
    R726.8 .G39 2014

    Ginsburg Health Science Library - Medical Humanities

    Call Number Description Type Availability
    WB 310 G284b 2014
    WB 310 G284b 2014

    Details

    Bibliography:
    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.
    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.
    Subject:
    ISBN:
    • 9780805095159
    • 0805095152
    Other ISBN:
    • 9781627790550
    • 1627790551
    LC Classification:
    R726.8 .G39 2014
    Catalog Record ID:
    991006209939703811
    Language:
    English

    By author/creator

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