At the end of life : true stories about how we die

Format:

Book

Title:

At the end of life : true stories about how we die

ISBN:

9781937163044

Publication Information:

Pittsburgh : Creative Nonfiction, 2012.

Physical Description:

xxii, 255 pages ; 23 cm

Contents:

Editor's Note: Frank at the piano -- Foreword: New approaches to end-of-life care / Karen Wolk Feinstein -- Introduction: Last days / Francine Prose -- To morning / Anne Jacobson -- On bearing witness / Laurie Foos -- Insights in the rearview mirror / Phyllis Galley Westover -- The general / Larry D. Cripe -- Yellow taxi / Eve Joseph -- Wake-up call / Catherine A. Musemeche -- Simple gifts / Beecher Grogan -- Living and dying well / Therese Zink -- A better place / Valerie Seiling Jacobs -- Waiting (to go home) / Howard Mansfield -- Mr. Stone / Diana Flescher -- Rules / Maria Meindl -- Life and death and 911 / Caroline Burau -- Snowing in Krakow / Marcin Chwistek -- Do you remember? / Patricia McCarthy -- The business of grief / Joe Primo -- This is blood / Sandell Morse -- A figurative death / Carol Cooley -- The measure of time / Amanda J. Redig -- The deep truth / Eugenia Smith -- The resurrection of Wonder Woman / Eleanor Vincent -- Twelve breaths a minute / Gulchin A. Ergun.

Summary:

A collection of twenty-two personal narratives explores what should be done in the health care system with regards to death, dying, and palliative care.

Subject(s):

Terminal care.

Death.

Caregivers.

Terminally ill -- Family relationships.

Palliative treatment.

Hospice care.

Death -- Psychological aspects.

Added Author:

Gutkind, Lee.

Prose, Francine, 1947-

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Dallas Public Library	306.9 Gutkind	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

What should medicine do when it can't save your life?

The modern healthcare system has become proficient at staving off death with aggressive interventions. And yet, eventually everyone dies--and although most Americans say they would prefer to die peacefully at home, more than half of all deaths take place in hospitals or health care facilities.

At the End of Life --the latest collaborative book project between the Creative Nonfiction Foundation and the Jewish Healthcare Foundation--tackles this conundrum head on. Featuring twenty-two compelling personal-medical narratives, the collection explores death, dying and palliative care, and highlights current features, flaws and advances in the healthcare system.

Here, a poet and former hospice worker reflects on death's mysteries; a son wanders the halls of his mother's nursing home, lost in the small absurdities of the place; a grief counselor struggles with losing his own grandfather; a medical intern traces the origins and meaning of time; a mother anguishes over her decision to turn off her daughter's life support and allow her organs to be harvested; and a nurse remembers many of her former patients.

These original, compelling personal narratives reveal the inner workings of hospitals, homes and hospices where patients, their doctors and their loved ones all battle to hang on--and to let go.

Author Notes

Lee Gutkind is founder and editor of the literary magazine Creative Nonaction and has written and edited books about baseball, health care, travel and technology. He is currently Distinguished Writer in Residence at the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes and Professor in the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, both at Arizona state university.

Reviews (1)

Publisher's Weekly Review

In 22 essays, family members who have survived the death of children and parents, as well as a variety of health professionals, talk frankly about their experiences with the dying and the process of death, raising important questions about how much should be done to prolong life, what to tell the dying, and how to handle our grief. For Beecher Grogan, the most selfless gesture in life as a mother is giving her 12-year-old, tormented by leukemia, her blessing to die in peace. And Phyllis Galley Westover, a former college dean, put her life on hold to care for her depressed and feeble 101-year-old father, but she wondered if she had done right by him or herself when she saved him from drowning when he fell into the swimming pool. Caroline Burau, a 911 dispatcher, doesn't fulfill her fantasy of "[saying] everything right,... anticipat[ing] every need" when she takes a harrowing call from a woman whose six-year-old had just shot her four-year-old. Creative Nonfiction magazine editor Gutkind gathers an impressive, meaningful, and often courageous chorus of voices tackling a once-taboo subject with dignity, giving strength and consolation particularly to those enduring the deaths of loved ones. Agent: Andrew Blauner, Blauner Books Literary Agency. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Karen Wolk FeinsteinFrancine ProseAnne JacobsonLaurie FoosPhyllis Galley WestoverLarry D. CripeEve JosephCatherine A. MusemecheBeecher GroganTherse ZinkValerie Seiling JacobsHoward MansfieldDiana FlescherMaria MeindlCaroline BurauMarcin ChwistekPatricia MccarthyJoe PrimoSandelll MorseCaroal CooleyAmanda J. RedigEugenia SmithEleanor VincentGulchina A. Ergun

Editor's Note: Frank at the Piano	p. vii
Foreword: New Approaches to End-of-Life Care	p. xi
Introduction: Last Days	p. xv
To Morning	p. 1
On Bearing Witness	p. 9
Insights in the Rearview Mirror	p. 23
The General	p. 37
Yellow Taxi	p. 51
Wake-Up Call	p. 63
Simple Gifts	p. 73
Living and Dying Well	p. 85
A Better Place	p. 95
Waiting (to Go Home)	p. 107
Mr. Stone	p. 119
Rules	p. 131
Life and Death and 911	p. 145
Snowing in Krakow	p. 152
Do You Remember?	p. 165
The Business of Grief	p. 177
This Is Blood	p. 187
A Figurative Death	p. 199
The Measure of Time	p. 209
The Deep Truth	p. 219
The Resurrectionof Wonder Woman	p. 233
Twelve Breaths a Minute	p. 247

Available:*

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (1)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Table of Contents