Being Mortal

swarmed up the stairs to her bedroom, sirens wailing outside. As they lifted Sara into the ambulance on a stretcher, Dawn came o ...

Andthenextstepforfightersistoescalatetointensive care. THIS ISA modern tragedy, replayed millions of times over.Whenthereisnoway ...

years.They’rethinkingthey’regettingatleastthatlottery ticket’s chance that their disease might not even be a problemanymore.More ...

get another opinion? Her life was at stake. Raising $212,000throughcharitabledonations,shepaidthecosts of therapy herself, but i ...

thebestpossiblelifenowandforthatmorningwhenshe might wake up unable to breathe. A two-year study of this “concurrent care” progr ...

theterminalcancerpatients intheCoping withCancer study reported having had no discussion with their doctors about their goals fo ...

farearlier,experiencedlesssufferingattheendoftheir lives—andtheylived 25 percentlonger.Inotherwords, our decision making in medi ...

andsmoking,theirlifeexpectancyoutpacesthenational mean by a year. IspoketoGregoryThompson,acriticalcarespecialistat GundersenLut ...

Doyouwanttubeorintravenousfeedingifyou can’t eat on your own? By1996, 85 percentofLaCrosseresidentswhodiedhad awrittenadvanced ...

cyst when thegynecologist who wasoperating on her discoveredthat shehad metastaticcoloncancer. Iwas summoned,asageneral surgeon, ...

Ihavefollowedherinthemonthsandyearssince,asshe embarkedonchemotherapy.Shehasdonewell.Sofar, thecancerisincheck.Once,Iaskedherand ...

understanding of the limits and the possibilities of medicine is a process, not an epiphany. There is no single way to take peop ...

tobeamassgrowinginthespinalcordofhisneck.She flew out to see him. The neurosurgeon said that the proceduretoremovethemasscarried ...

developedbleedinginthespinalcord.Thesurgeonstold herthatinordertosavehislifetheywouldneedtogo backin. Butthebleedinghad alreadym ...

that resulted. He didn’t want a feeding tube. And it becameevidentthatthebattleforthedwindlingchanceof a miraculous recovery was ...

thiswasnotthedecisionhehadexpectedtomake.First, theoncologistsaid,shehadadiscussionwithhimalone. They reviewed the story of how ...

willing to undergotherapies they don’t want if thatis what their loved ones want. Theoncologistwentto thefather’shometomeet with ...

Thesimpleviewisthatmedicineexiststofightdeathand disease,andthatis,ofcourse,itsmostbasictask.Death is the enemy. But the enemy h ...

February, the train of events ran against a peaceful ending.Therewasonepersonwhowasdisturbedbythis, though, and who finally deci ...

antibiotics.Butifthingsgot worse,theywouldnotput herona breathingmachine.Theyalsolethimcallthe palliativecareteamtovisit.Theteam ...