Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

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

35 reviews

bendercath's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

So powerful and thought-provoking. My parents who are in their 80s and both had careers in medicine also read this. Everyone should read this book. However, the topic is very heavy so proceed with caution if you are currently having a difficult time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Medical content

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

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

alyssabookrecs's review against another edition

informative reflective slow-paced

2.0

It seems I’m in the minority of Storygraph ratings for Being Mortal, and I wish I liked this more. Some moments did shine, but that doesn’t outweigh the constant case study structure. I also wondered about if Gawande could have looked at socioeconomic status and access to medicine/treatment; in here it feels as if the status quo is that everyone has access to palliative and end-of-life care (and good care at that), but that isn’t always the case.

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Content Warnings

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

recorderkfk's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

I cried a little at the end reading this. I'm 29 and have as of now, seen only two significant deaths in my life. Learning about the choices my parents went through for both of their fathers was no comparison at all to how thoroughly Atul Gawande talks about aging and dying in this book. 

It's the type of book that I think everyone should read, when they're in a good frame of mind to be both reflective analytical at how aging just suddenly becomes dying and the questions we face at the end of our lives, makes life worth living, what will really matter to us in the end. The book is full of a lot of patients stories making it accessible and less clinical. Highly recommend this book, and Gandhi's other book of the checklist manifesto.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Death of parent and Excrement

Minor: Mental illness and Drug use

rigbylove's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Such a beautiful book that has already opened a conversation with my aging mother (who is reading it). A must-read for everyone, especially healthcare workers. 

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Content Warnings

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

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