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Title: How We Die
Subtitle: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter
Author: Sherwin B. Nuland
Narrator: Sherwin B. Nuland
Format: Abridged
Length: 2 hrs and 56 mins
Language: English
Release date: 02-02-07
Publisher: Random House Audio
Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 292 votes
Genres: Science & Technology, Medicine
Publisher's Summary:
Though the avenues of death, AIDS, cancer, heart attack, Alzheimer's, accident, and stroke, are common, each of us will die in a way different from any that has gone before. Each one of death's diverse appearances is as distinctive as that singular face we each show during our lives. Behind each death is a story.
In How We Die, Sherwin B. Nuland, a surgeon and teacher of medicine, tells some stories of dying that reveal not only why someone dies but how. He offers a portrait of the experience of dying that makes clear the choices that can be made to allow each of us his or her own death.
Critic Reviews:
"Drawing upon his own broad experience and the characteristics of the six most common death-causing diseases, Nuland examines what death means to the doctor, patient, nurse, administrator, and family. Thought provoking and humane, his is not the usual syrup-and-generality approach." (Booklist)
Members Reviews:
A very special read
I have a difficult time dealing with loss and didn't expect to like this book because I thought it would just be too sad; but I did enjoy it. Very different than what I was expecting. Helpful to anyone. A must-read for health care professionals.
Required reading for those still breathing
This book places the responsibility for living and dying where it should be placed, firmly with the individual in process.The suggestion that modern western medicine can and has made life easier is countered with the fact that sometimes, it can prolong life too far, and then allows more suffering than was necessary. It is up to each person to decide whats enough. Thats a hard choice, when you begin to balance what others want, who you will dissapoint,and so on.A very thought provoking look at death in its visceral form, sometimes messy, emotionally charged, very human.
Rip-off
I didn't notice until I downloaded it that it's an abridged version. This is not the type of book, in either length or content, that can benefit from being abridged.
Good Account of the Facts
The author tells the story of death through case studies. The first two case studies deal with sudden death by myocardial infarction (heart attack) - one resulting in death, the other saved by CPR. There is a no sugar coating of the facts, just a very careful and illustrative accounting. My first two takeaways were improve my eating habits and to teach my kids CPR so that I may survive my "golden hour" if I have a heart attack. The author then dispels the "died of old age" myth and describes the the telltale, small signs of decline in aging. I think the factual approach is refreshing. I was unprepared for death of my father that died similar to his grandmother. I was unprepared for the death of my father-in-law that died like his very first patient. This book not only prepares you for these realities but also offers a cautionary signs to help you avoid an early end. This book is not the subject of the teen set perhaps. But anyone with parents over 50 would do well to read it or just be surprised by inevitable events later.
Very Abridged
Would you recommend How We Die to your friends? Why or why not?
I would definitely not recommend the audiobook, buy the hardcopy instead.
Similar to reviewer Wisefool, I didn't notice that this is a very abridged version until it ended after the 3rd chapter.
