Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

26 reviews

dylpicklez's review

informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer and Terminal illness

Moderate: Death and Death of parent

mothstrand's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical content, Death of parent, Cancer, Terminal illness, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Vomit and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Excrement

applesaucecreachur's review

challenging emotional informative reflective slow-paced

4.5

Some books come at just the right time, and this one is at an unfair advantage: To those living in the modern-day United States, this message will always be necessary.

I won't deny that, despite the litany of gathered stories and devoted editors and researchers that this book employed, the ultimate message still comes from the perspective of one male medical doctor. He offered allowances for capitalist structures including insurance systems in how he references the financial cost of medical care while dying.  The basis of this book refers to disability as an unfortunate reality to be overcome at best, and at worst, a fate worse than death; while the message is about the end of life, I interpreted this as not a message that disability is merely another facet of life.
 
Still, I believe that Dr. Gawande and his team's tireless work paid off in Being Mortal. Gawande calls out modern medicine and its practitioners for morphing death into a demon to be battled til the bitter end (and oftentimes, beyond), rather than as something to be accepted for the sake of the dying and their beloveds. While he offers guiding principles, everyone's experience with and therefore their discussions about death are different, and that is the point. Patients are people and they contain multitudes. Our love for our people must keep their humanness, and not their treatment regimen, at the forefront. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Chronic illness, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Medical trauma and Ableism

fiadhnd's review

emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

Being Mortal | Atul Gawande | Standalone | Nonfiction/Memoir | Audiobook | Dr Atul Gawande discusses elderly care and end of life care and reflects on death and dying. | Content Warning (CW) and Trigger Warnings (TW)

Spoiler

extensive medical scenes, illness, end of life care, death

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Death

thewileyseven's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative medium-paced

5.0

Extraordinary and essential. Spiritually, a beginning to the conversations of how acceptance and commitment theory can be applied to end-of-life care. I am positive I will be referring to this book regularly throughout the rest of my life. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Cancer, Terminal illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death, and Suicide

ca517's review

emotional informative

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Terminal illness

milliemillz's review

challenging emotional informative reflective slow-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Death, and Cancer

ulviyyask's review

challenging reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Medical content, Death, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, and Cancer

laheath's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

Because I encounter this on a daily basis in my work, my professional opinions definitely influence my personal opinions. I see patients and families unprepared and struggling with end of life decisions, afraid they're going to make the wrong decisions, unsure what they're loved ones would have wanted because they never had those difficult conversations, or in complete denial and somehow convinced that their loved one can live forever with enough medical intervention which ultimately only causes more suffering.

This is a must-read for anyone facing a terminal diagnosis or planning for elder care. The author does not give specific instructions for any of this but stresses the importance of determining an individual's goals across the continuum of care. This helps to ensure personalized care and to prepare family members for what may be to come, allowing them time to accept the patient's wishes. Giving the patient some control and dignity during this final stage of life often goes hand in hand with their quality of life. The author uses examples from his own family and patients, as well as research articles, to demonstrate the profound effects of patient-centered care, including long-term care, assisted living, oncology, hospice and palliative care. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Medical content, and Terminal illness

brooklynchaise's review

informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

Very informative and perspective changing. It challenged me to think about mortality and the things that make life worth living, especially at the end. I will definitely recommend this book to others and reflect on its contents as I and my family grow older 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Death, Cancer, Terminal illness, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Death of parent, Dementia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Drug use, and Vomit