Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

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

32 reviews

cprince99's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

I loved how Atul used his clinical knowledge, lived experience, and true humanitarian passion to explore this topic! He covers everything related to mortality; the challenges, the history informing how we treat our elderly in the present-day, what & why we should be doing more for our elderly, and how to confront the question we all should know the answer to; what is most important to us as we reach the end of our lives? 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Grief, Death of parent, Terminal illness, Death, Medical content, and Chronic illness

laurenkimoto's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

Warning: do not listen to this audiobook while driving you will tear up 

I found this to be a seamless blend of Dr. Gawande’s personal and professional experiences with end of life care for the elderly and terminally ill. The kindness and compassion shown is moving and makes you really think about how you would want to spend the last months of your life and what really matters to you. 

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Content Warnings

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

hayleyvem's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Medical content, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, and Drug use

Moderate: Drug abuse

Minor: Addiction, Car accident, and Suicide attempt

violetsto_'s review against another edition

informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

This book is great, informative, and incredibly heartbreaking. Gawande perfectly mixes facts and statistics with human stories that really personify and ground the information. The anecdotes (whether about patients, friends, assisted living/nursing home residents and innovators) are the bright lights of this book, even when they are tragic and depressing. Gawande's own personal story of aging and loss is especially meaningful to the narrative and point he's trying to get across with this book.

This book sparked interesting thoughts and conversations about autonomy, the "value" of life, freedom, etc. as well as how the medical system can be both helpful and harmful.

As a person with parents that are starting to reach "elderly," this book scared the heck out of me but also gave me a lot of information I think I will be very glad to have in the near future. It gave me a starting point for some difficult conversations that I will likely have to have with my parents and other loved ones eventually. 

While I think this book would be interesting and helpful to almost anyone (especially those with loved ones who are getting older or dealing with terminal illness), I do have one warning that is likely not surprising: some of the anecdotes in this book can be really difficult to get through. Be kind to yourself while reading and give yourself breaks if needed. If I didn't have a deadline to get this finished by, I think I would have taken much longer to read it. The stories near the end are especially difficult.

Note: Read this for book club at the medical school I work at. (It was very interesting hearing the perspective of a few doctors who had read this book!)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Death of parent

Moderate: Chronic illness, Terminal illness, and Medical content

norwegianforestreader's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Body horror, Blood, Cancer, Death, Excrement, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Death of parent, Dementia, and Grief

gtrue21's review against another edition

challenging hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Suicide, Abandonment, Ableism, Medical content, Medical trauma, Cancer, Death of parent, Dementia, Death, Confinement, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, and Forced institutionalization

sjanke2's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

jmcordero's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Abandonment, Ableism, Colonisation, and Forced institutionalization

priya_haha's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Terminal illness, Death of parent, and Death

kierscrivener's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

4.5

 This was an incredible book that is about geriatrics and dying, but focused most profoundly on how our approach of healthcare and medicine fails us by being focused on fixing instead of helping and how care for elderly, disabled and palliative patients undermine their dignity and wellness for the sake of efficiency. It raises a lot of questions around whether doing everything is the best option and how by ignoring the inevitability of death we rob the sick from what they want in their last days and their loved ones from proper conversations and closure. I highly recommend it to those who work in medicine and helping professions as well as anyone with aging family. But most of all to everyone as all of us will come to face mortality in both our own lives and those we love and this is a guide to conversations discussions that we often neglect. 

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Content Warnings

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