A doctor on the front lines of hospital care illuminates one of the most important and controversial social issues of our time. It is harder to die in this country than ever before. Though the vast majority of Americans would prefer to die at home—which hospice care provides—many of us spend our last days fearful
A doctor on the front lines of hospital care illuminates one of the most important and controversial social issues of our time.
It is harder to die in this country than ever before. Though the vast majority of Americans would prefer to die at home—which hospice care provides—many of us spend our last days fearful and in pain in a healthcare system ruled by high-tech procedures and a philosophy to “fight disease and illness at all cost.”
Dr. Ira Byock, one of the foremost palliative-care physicians in the country, argues that how we die represents a national crisis today. To ensure the best possible elder care, Dr. Byock explains we must not only remake our healthcare system but also move beyond our cultural aversion to thinking about death. The Best Care Possible is a compelling meditation on medicine and ethics told through page-turning life-or-death medical drama. It has the power to lead a new national conversation.
){kind=link}
discussion of a critical issue which cannot be avoided This book is not intended for everyone. Just for those of us with an ailing loved one, or a loved one who who is dying. Or those of us who may at some time have an ailing loved one, or a loved one who may die. Or those of us who may at some time ourselves be ailing or dying. Dr Byock transforms the discussion of how we live our final days from a political hot potato to a rational, personal and heartfelt fact of life. As a physician, I am keenly aware of the miraculous medical tools that we…
A “good death?”… Dr Ira Byock’s new book, “The Best Care Possible” is one doctor’s look at the inevitability we all face – death. Like taxes, death is a by-product of life and a “good death”, while seemingly an oxymoron, is something Dr Byock has been writing about for many years. An “end-of-life” specialist at New Hampshire’s Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Ira Byock works with a team to put together as good and gentle a death experience as possible for his patients. Byock writes, that as we…
It takes a strong stomach… It is impossible for a layman to comment on the professional content of this book, but the narrative treatment of real life case histories makes it a highly emotional read, considering that America is a death defying culture served by doctors who will never give up unless forced to do so. Perhaps it is humanly impossible to cope ahead for the decisions to be made in end of life care, but this is certainly food for thought and advanced planning. Many people may not have the stomach for it, but…