Book Review

I recently re-ignited my previous affair with a book titled "How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter" By Dr. Sherwin B. Nuland. I know what you're thinking 'Gee isn't she a ray of sunshine?', but despite the book's morbid title, it is much more than the stark and sterile biological breakdown of the body's ultimate demise. Depressing - a bit, gruesome - sometimes, compassionate - always. This physician writes with the knowledge of a seasoned practitioner but with the tenderness that one doesn't usually possess at the end of such a grueling career. It is rare to find a physician at the end of his/her practice with this kind of tenderness that hasn't been chipped away by impossible patients and equally impossible health care systems (for you Americans I have one acronym HMO, need I say more?). Not to say that physician's don't feel this way, it's just not outwardly apparent to people like me for instance. Most physician's would prefer not to reflect on their career since the first time around was draining enough.

The author recounts a time when he watched a patient and friend die in front of him from complications of heart failure. He tells it with two voices, the doctor and the friend, perfectly blending together harmoniously each voice getting it's chance to evaluate the situation. This must have been one of the most difficult times in this doctors life, or so I would imagine.

Bottom line, for any lay person, green horn to the health care field, or even seasoned physician, this book gives a wonderful perspective on life both from the biological, scientific breakdown and raw humanity.