Review: Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hooter: Modern day medicine helps delay death, not extend life.

The above statement summarises my take on the book by Dr. Atul Gawande as he looks at geriatric and palliative care in the United States with statistics and stories, underlining how those numbers are people. When mortality hits closer to his home, Dr. Atul Gawande shares his father's story. He also takes a look at how mortality as a subject has changed over centuries and is medicine solving the right problem at hand or more importantly approaching it in the right way. The topic is something no one in my age group ponders upon atleast if they believe themselves to be healthy "physically" or "mentally" and are labelled otherwise if they do. Some eye opening statements on how as a social policy, we have some safety nets for healthy old age but not for the final stages of mortality and also the utopian expectations we have from medical processes whereas the reality could be different and that mismatch extends the misery for the one in question and their family often with the family carrying the weight of life decisions of their loved ones. A rich mix of dry academia and emotional human connect makes this a breezy read even while being weighed down by an existential topic.

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