Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande

31 reviews

nyom7's review against another edition

challenging hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

This is a must read for frankly everyone.  They say the two things you can guarantee in life are death and taxes.  Well this book deals with the mortality of man in a hopeful, profound, and easy to access way.  Having these conversations with your loved ones is imperative.  The humanity and compassion contained within these pages, shaped by the experiences of the author pours out.  READ.  THIS.  BOOK.  Tell your friends, your mum, your brother, the person you're sitting next to on the bus to READ.  THIS.  BOOK.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Medical content, Death, Dementia, Chronic illness, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, and Cancer

brenreads's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring sad slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Chronic illness, Cancer, Suicidal thoughts, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Abandonment

Minor: Dementia

electrickid's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

This changed my brain chemistry, inspiring both my life and clinical practice. A really interesting, thought provoking, and delicately powerful read. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Medical trauma

anushareflects's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.75

A profoundly difficult read because it holds up a mirror to what we all will inevitably face - old age, disease, death. It is an extremely powerful work filled with information and language that we need to learn in order to contemplate the decisions that come with our mortality and those of our loved ones. It can be terribly depressing in many parts and the futility of our lives overwhelmed me at times, but it is necessary reading for everyone. Chock full of research,  statistics, and empathy, Gawande does a phenomenal job communicating the message. 

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Content Warnings

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

readingbits's review against another edition

hopeful informative sad medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness and Death

Moderate: Death

giannacolo's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Death, Chronic illness, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Terminal illness

mothstrand's review against another edition

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 against another edition

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

fi_c's review against another edition

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)

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 against another edition

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