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Knocking on heaven's door : the path to a better way of death / Katy Butler.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: Thorndike Press large print health, home & learningPublisher: Detroit : Thorndike Press, A part of Gale, Cengage Learning, [2013]Description: 519 pages (large print) : illustrations ; 23 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 1410463230 (hardcover)
  • 9781410463234 (hardback)
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
The stroke. Along came a blackbird ; A year of grace ; Rites of passage -- Fast medicine. The tyranny of hope ; Inventing lifesaving and transforming death ; My father's open heart -- Ordeal. Not getting better ; Dharma sisters ; Broke-down palace ; White water -- Rebellion. The sorcerer's apprentice ; The business of lifesaving ; Deactivation -- Acceptance. The art of dying ; Afterward -- Grace. Valerie makes up her mind ; Old plum tree bent and gnarled -- Into the light. A better way of death ; A map through the labyrinth ; Notes for a new art of dying.
Summary: Katy Butler was living thousands of miles from her vigorous and self-reliant parents when the call came: a crippling stroke had left her proud seventy-nine-year-old father unable to fasten a belt or complete a sentence. Tragedy at first drew the family closer: her mother devoted herself to caregiving, and Butler joined the twenty-four million Americans helping shepherd parents through their final declines. Then doctors outfitted her father with a pacemaker, keeping his heart going but doing nothing to prevent his six-year slide into dementia, near-blindness, and misery. When he told his exhausted wife, "I'm living too long," mother and daughter were forced to confront a series of wrenching moral questions. When does death stop being a curse and become a blessing? Where is the line between saving a life and prolonging a dying? When do you say to a doctor, "Let my loved one go?" When doctors refused to disable the pacemaker, condemning her father to a prolonged and agonizing death, Butler set out to understand why. Her quest had barely begun when her mother took another path. Faced with her own grave illness, she rebelled against her doctors, refused open-heart surgery, and met death head-on. With a reporter's skill and a daughter's love, Butler explores what happens when our terror of death collides with the technological imperatives of medicine. Her thesis is that modern medicine, in its pursuit of maximum longevity, often creates more suffering than it prevents. This blend of memoir and investigative reporting lays bare the tangled web of technology, medicine, and commerce that dying has become. And it chronicles the rise of Slow Medicine, a new movement trying to reclaim the 'Good Deaths' our ancestors prized.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Notes Date due Barcode Item holds
Large Print Book Large Print Book Main Library Large Print NonFiction 362.175 B985 Available water damage on pgs 423-428. 4/10/2024 33111007476183
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Like so many of us, award-winning writer Katy Butler always assumed her aging parents would experience healthy, active retire-ments before dying peacefully at home. Then her father suffered a stroke that left him incapable of easily finishing a sentence or showering without assistance. Her mother was thrust into full-time caregiving, and Katy became one of the 24 mil-lion Americans who help care for aging parents. In an effort to correct a minor and non-life threatening heart arrhythmia, doctors outfitted her father with a pacemaker. The device kept his heart beating but did nothing to prevent his slide into dementia, incontinence, near-muteness, and misery. After several years, he asked his wife for help, telling her, "I am living too long."

Mother and daughter faced a series of wrench-ing moral questions: When does death cease being a curse and become a blessing? Where is the line between saving life and prolonging a dying? When is the right time to say to a doctor, "Let my loved one go"?

When doctors refused to disable the pace-maker, sentencing her father to a protracted and agonizing death, Katy set out to understand why. Her quest had barely begun when her mother faced her own illness, rebelled against her doctors, refused open-heart surgery, and instead met death head-on. Knocking on Heaven's Door , a revolution-ary blend of memoir and investigative reporting, is the fruit of the Butler family's journey.

With a reporter's skill, a poet's eye, and a daughter's love, Butler explores what happens when our terror of death collides with the tech-nological imperatives of modern medicine. Her provocative thesis is that advanced medicine, in its single-minded pursuit of maximum longevity, often creates more suffering than it prevents. Butler lays bare the tangled web of technology, medicine, and commerce that modern dying has become and chronicles the rise of Slow Medicine--a growing movement that promotes care over cure.

Knocking on Heaven's Door is a visionary map through the labyrinth of a broken and morally adrift medical system. It will inspire the necessary and difficult conversations we all need to have with loved ones as it illuminates a path to a better way of death.

Includes bibliographical references.

The stroke. Along came a blackbird ; A year of grace ; Rites of passage -- Fast medicine. The tyranny of hope ; Inventing lifesaving and transforming death ; My father's open heart -- Ordeal. Not getting better ; Dharma sisters ; Broke-down palace ; White water -- Rebellion. The sorcerer's apprentice ; The business of lifesaving ; Deactivation -- Acceptance. The art of dying ; Afterward -- Grace. Valerie makes up her mind ; Old plum tree bent and gnarled -- Into the light. A better way of death ; A map through the labyrinth ; Notes for a new art of dying.

Katy Butler was living thousands of miles from her vigorous and self-reliant parents when the call came: a crippling stroke had left her proud seventy-nine-year-old father unable to fasten a belt or complete a sentence. Tragedy at first drew the family closer: her mother devoted herself to caregiving, and Butler joined the twenty-four million Americans helping shepherd parents through their final declines. Then doctors outfitted her father with a pacemaker, keeping his heart going but doing nothing to prevent his six-year slide into dementia, near-blindness, and misery. When he told his exhausted wife, "I'm living too long," mother and daughter were forced to confront a series of wrenching moral questions. When does death stop being a curse and become a blessing? Where is the line between saving a life and prolonging a dying? When do you say to a doctor, "Let my loved one go?" When doctors refused to disable the pacemaker, condemning her father to a prolonged and agonizing death, Butler set out to understand why. Her quest had barely begun when her mother took another path. Faced with her own grave illness, she rebelled against her doctors, refused open-heart surgery, and met death head-on. With a reporter's skill and a daughter's love, Butler explores what happens when our terror of death collides with the technological imperatives of medicine. Her thesis is that modern medicine, in its pursuit of maximum longevity, often creates more suffering than it prevents. This blend of memoir and investigative reporting lays bare the tangled web of technology, medicine, and commerce that dying has become. And it chronicles the rise of Slow Medicine, a new movement trying to reclaim the 'Good Deaths' our ancestors prized.

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