ipl-logo

Atul Gawande Being Mortal Summary

798 Words4 Pages

The Frontline special on Being Mortal, written by Atul Gawande, shows the difficult side of healthcare that many doctors struggle with, how to confront death with patients. He brings light to topics like terminal illness and facing mortality. Atul Gawande is an oncologist whom, like many doctors, still wonders how to tell patients that their treatment is no longer working. He decided to collaborate with different physicians to gain a better understanding of how to approach the situation. A young woman was referred to him, 8 months pregnant and diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. This was the first time he found himself struggling with treatment and end of life options. Her and her physicians tired every method possible to beat an incurable …show more content…

They approach the situation in a different way that is better understood by the patient. The physician in palliative care at Brigham and Women’s was effective and compassionate. Every time she was with a patient she leaned it and would lightly touch their shoulder or leg. That light touch can be very helpful to calm a patient and improves the patient doctor relationship. She would also ask the patient what they were feeling before she continued to talk which gave her a better grasp on the situation. Overall, I think her methods and techniques were incredibly helpful with the patients she treated in this …show more content…

Although the patients were all in the same stage physically, their mental status greatly differed between each of them. One of the most influential patients was, Jeff. He approached death differently than the other patients; he wasn’t scared or worried, but happy with the live he lived. He didn’t want to pursue any extra unnecessary treatment that would have decreased his quality of life. Sometimes people get so caught up in the treatment and searching for miracles that they forget how painful the side effects of treatment can be and how the pain can shorten their life. Jeff spent his last few weeks at home surrounded by family and said that those last few weeks were some of the happiest weeks of his life. I think it is important to weigh the options of treatment and really consider what the quality of life will be during

Show More
Related
618 Words | 3 Pages

Atul Gawande, surgeon, professor of surgery at Harvard and public health researcher, explores his view on the death penalty and the research that shook his views. Gawande’s personal view on the death penalty has been transformed by the research conducted for his story “Doctors of the Death Chamber”. In this story doctors and nurses give personal accounts of their controversial roles in prison executions. Gawande’s story about capital punishment raises the question: “Is medicine being used as an instrument of death?” Prior to 1982 the United States carried out executions through hanging, gas chambers, firing squads, and electrocution.

Read More
462 Words | 2 Pages

It is important to take care of the people around you. You may never know when the last time you see them will be. The essay “Before I go” by Paul Kalanithi is about a neurosurgeon. During the six years of doing his job he had a few symptoms like weight loss, fevers, night sweats, back pain. He then found out he has metastatic lung cancer.

Read More
126 Words | 1 Pages

She listened to my concern and addressed every one of them. Being a medical professional, I am very critical of the medical care I receive and I was over 100% satisfied with my experience. Her care and bedside manner are fantastic. I highly recommend.

Read More
422 Words | 2 Pages

“He’s dead, you can’t save him, there is nothing you can do about it” this sentence haunts medical professionals as doctors are trained to save lives. Perhaps what’s even more haunting is a doctor ending a patient’s life. Samuel Shem’s the House of God sheds light on the issue through its intern, Roy who goes through a rough time after killing a patient. Roy falsely thought he killed the patient to release his suffering, however, that’s not the case as he killed him to make peace with his own death.

Read More
590 Words | 3 Pages

Atul Gawande in his article “Whose body is it, anyway?” introduced couple of cases, which discussed a controversial topic, doctors dealing with patients and making important medical decisions. These are difficult decisions in which people might have life or death choices. Who should make the important decisions, patients or doctors? Patients don’t usually know what is better for their health and while making their decisions, they might ignore or don’t know the possible side effects and consequences of these decisions.

Read More
370 Words | 2 Pages

It’ll eventually cause him lose his ability to walk and talk. He is aware of all of this and has accepted it. He lets it be known that he is okay with going to be with God. He does not want the chemotherapy. The parents are against this and tell the doctors go ahead with the treatment.

Read More
810 Words | 4 Pages

Atul Gawande’s book, “Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End,” explores different themes such as, aging, death, and the mishandling of both aging and death by the medical profession’s. This book also addresses what it means to live well near the end of life. It is not just to survive, not just to be safe, not just to stay alive as long as the medical technology allows, but, according to the author it is about what living truly means to an individual. The author describes that the idea of “Being Mortal” developed as he watched his elderly father go through a steep decline in his health and the eventual death. He soon realized that during his medical education and training he was never taught how to help his patients with managing

Read More
1681 Words | 7 Pages

Can you imagine going through long battle with a disease only to be told that you have only 6 more months to live. All of these thoughts and questions start running through your head and you feel like you’re dreaming or having some sort of out of body experience. Being diagnosed with a terminal illness is unimaginable, emotional and physically trying. Cancer is the number one leading cause of terminal death in the United States, to put that into a better perspective one out of every four deaths is cancer related. That’s about 564,000 deaths annually and 1,500 deaths per day.

Read More
736 Words | 3 Pages

"PB 's dying," my husband mumbled as he hung up the phone. "They 're taking him off life support and moving him to Hospice care, but they don 't expect him to last long." I gave my husband a pep talk, reminding him that his younger brother had escaped death 's grip, many times before, even though the doctors had predicted otherwise. In fact, PB had miraculously eluded death so often that we had compared him to a cat with nine lives. He 'd recovered from life threatening illnesses, deadly accidents, even terminal cancer, so now all we could do is hope and pray he had one of those lives left and that he 'd triumph over the deadly sepsis that ravaged his body.

Read More
399 Words | 2 Pages

It brought to my awareness both the limitation and the capacity of medicine. Although there was no medical intervention that could cure the diseases of those terminal patients, their quality of life was improved  by an outstanding team of doctors, nurses and volunteers. This awareness helped reconcile myself to the fact that certain things, such as death and terminal illness, can not be avoided or changed. By viewing death as a natural part of life, I will be able to offer my dying patients the best care possible while also understanding my limitation as a physician and a human being.

Read More
1461 Words | 6 Pages

Death is a natural process that will be experienced by everyone at some point, desirably at the end of a long, well lived life. The reality is that no one knows when that time will come or how it will happen. Unfortunately, for the terminally ill, death is in the near future and it is a sobering reality. Therefore, when that time comes, people need to know that they will have options, and the assurance that death does not have to be an agonizing end. They can choose to endure the annihilating pain that comes with the disease and allow it to take its natural course or choose to put an end to it, surrounded by those who love them.

Read More
1411 Words | 6 Pages

When someone is diagnosed with a life threatening disease, like cancer or IPF, they go through the seven stages of grief. Those stages are denial, guilt, anger, depression, the upward turn, reconstruction, and then expectance. For many, denial sets in quickly. They don’t believe that they are sick, and try to pretend that they are totally healthy.

Read More
918 Words | 4 Pages

His role as an oncologist has profoundly influenced the manner in which I plan to practice medicine in the future: with respect, compassion, and empathy for my patients. It was my observation of his interactions with cancer surviving patients that first inspired me to pursue medicine. These interactions inspired me not only to embark on a profession where I could serve others, but also make a difference in the lives of others. I believe I can make the biggest impact in the lives of my future patients by combining my passion for the clinic and science as a physician-scientist. Though I am early in my medical journey, and am willing to keep an open mind, it is only natural that I yearn to pursue a profession related to oncology.

Read More
1048 Words | 5 Pages

Kalanithi has produced a disturbing, yet intriguing autobiographical book about his journey towards death. He writes from when he was on the verge of completing years of training as a neurosurgeon when he learns that he has stage IV lung cancer. He explains how one day, he was a confident, young neurosurgeon saving lives, the next he was the patient, struggling to live. Just like that the future he had planned for his wife and himself had evaporated. When reading Kalanathi’s book, the audience is pulled into the story as though they too are experiencing cancer on a physical and mental level.

Read More
178 Words | 1 Pages

Terry begins training for his “Marathon of Hope” which was a continental race across Canada to raise money for the Canadian Cancer Society on one leg, something that has never been done before by anyone. His goal was to complete the race from east coast to west coast running 20 miles a day on one leg in hopes of raising money and awareness for cancer research. The journey was not easy on his mind or body for it was a very demanding challenge. At Terry’s halfway point he began to get sicker and had intense chest pain which brought his race to a halt. Doctors discovered the cancer had taken a turn for the worse and spread to Terry’s lungs, making him unable to finish his race.

Read More

More about Atul Gawande Being Mortal Summary

Related Topics

Open Document