The release date for the English version of 'Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End' by
Atul Gawande is Oct 2014. If you enjoy this novel, it is available for buy as a paperback from Barnes & Noble or Indigo, as an ebook on the Amazon Kindle store, or as an audiobook on Audible.
Author Atul Gawande addresses the most difficult problem facing his field in his book Being Mortal: how medicine may prolong life while simultaneously accelerating its end.
Modern medicine has prevailed, making horrific conditions like childbirth, injuries, and infectious diseases tolerable. However, the objectives of medicine too often appear to conflict with the needs of the human spirit in the face of age and death, which are inescapable conditions. Patients in nursing homes are forced into wheelchairs and fenced beds out of concern for their safety. Hospitals segregate the terminally ill and monitor their vital signs long after all hope of recovery has vanished. In an effort to prolong life, doctors persist in performing excruciating treatments that ultimately worsen misery.
As a practicing surgeon, Gawande confronts the ultimate constraint of his field and contends that the objective for patients and their families should be quality of life. In order to show that a person's last weeks or months may be rich and dignified, Gawande examines the many hospice care options and provides instances of more liberated, socially satisfying models for helping the elderly who are infirm and dependant.