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What should medicine do when
it can’t save your life?
The modern healthcare system
has become proficient at staving off death with aggressive interventions. And
yet, eventually everyone dies—and although most Americans say they would prefer
to die peacefully at home, more than half of all deaths take place in hospitals
or health care facilities.
At the End of Life tackles
this conundrum head on. Featuring twenty-two compelling personal-medical
narratives, the collection explores death, dying and palliative care, and
highlights current features, flaws and advances in the healthcare system.
Here, a poet and former
hospice worker reflects on death’s mysteries; a son wanders the halls of his
mother’s nursing home, lost in the small absurdities of the place; a grief
counselor struggles with losing his own grandfather; a medical intern traces
the origins and meaning of time; a mother anguishes over her decision to turn
off her daughter’s life support and allow her organs to be harvested; and a
nurse remembers many of her former patients.
These original, compelling
personal narratives reveal the inner workings of hospitals, homes and hospices
where patients, their doctors and their loved ones all battle to hang on—and to
let go.
DJE: These are remarkable vignettes that are really worth reading. To savor them, they might best be read in small doses.
DJE: These are remarkable vignettes that are really worth reading. To savor them, they might best be read in small doses.
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