The Battle Of Being Mortal Is The

I Talked To Over Two Hundred Patients And Family Members About Their Experiences With Aging, Serious Illnesses, And The Big Unfixables. But I Also Spoke With Scores Of Physicians, And Especially Geriatricians, Palliative Care Doctors, Hospice Nurses, And Nursing Home Workers. The Biggest Thing I Found Was That When These Clinicians Were At Their Best, They Were Recognizing That People Had Priorities Besides Merely Living Longer. The Most Important And Reliable Way That We Can Understand What People's Priorities Are, Besides Just Living Longer, Is To Simply Ask. And We Don't Ask.

Expertise Is The Mantra Of Modern Medicine.

Our Reluctance To Honestly Examine The Experience Of Aging And Dying Has Increased The Harm We Inflict On People And Denied Them The Basic Comforts They Most Need.

We Always Hope For The Easy Fix: The One Simple Change That Will Erase A Problem In A Stroke. But Few Things In Life Work This Way. Instead, Success Requires Making A Hundred Small Steps Go Right - One After The Other, No Slipups, No Goofs, Everyone Pitching In.

The Battle Of Being Mortal Is The Battle To Maintain The Integrity Of One's Life.