Being mortal : medicine and what matters in the end

The Resource Being mortal : medicine and what matters in the end

Label

Being mortal : medicine and what matters in the end

Title remainder

medicine and what matters in the end

Statement of responsibility

Atul Gawande

Title variation

Medicine and what matters in the end

Language

eng

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

Cataloging source

DNLM/DLC

Dewey number

362.17/5

Index

no index present

LC call number

R726.8

LC item number

.G39 2014

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

NLM call number

2014 M-608
WB 310
WB 310

NLM item number

G284b 2014

Context

Context of Being mortal : medicine and what matters in the end

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Context

Work of