Being Mortal By Ivan Ilyich - 1311 Words

â€Å"Being Mortal† brings into question the way the health care system treats those who have no chance of recovery and are most certainly untreatable. From the beginning, were Gawandee pointed out the story of Ivan Ilyich, whose suffering was caused by an untreatable ailment. Ilyich was forced into treatment after treatment rather than made comfortable as he passed on. This leads into his next story where he was an intern whose patient had little to no hope of extended survival. The patient was offered a risky surgery that would do little good with the possibility of heafty consequences. Though the procedure was considered a technical success, the patient never recovered and soon was taken off of lifesupport. Gawande questions whether our†¦show more content†¦The importance of a fulfilled life seems to be lost under treatment after treatment. A comfortable end should be offered over one that will simply extend the patient’s pain and suffering. A study conducte d in 2010 using lung care patients showed those under the treatment of a palliative care specialist not only suffered less but also lived longer than those patients who were not. This would lead one to conclude that the focus on ameliorating the pain of the patient and their family should be the top priority in patients with ailments like terminal cancer. The book’s last two chapters focus on the author’s loss of his father. Gawande’s father was an oncologist, whose career involved finding cancer in others. This meant he also had the responsibility of delivering the news to his unfortunate patients. Gawande notes that there are two types of relationships with doctors, which are informative and paternalistic. His father decided to enter hospice care, which then leads into a dramatic scene where the author is giving a graduation address at Ohio University. His father was supposed to be wheeled in but instead he walked and climbed stairs. Gawande attributed this st rength to a â€Å"different kind of care†. This means that hospice care showed to improve strength in his father rather than be a detriment to him, as opposed to how he would likely have reacted to a round of different treatments.Show MoreRelatedWhen Tolstoy Meets Kant571 Words   |  2 PagesTolstoy Meets Kant Immanuel Kant’s moral philosophy radiates throughout Leo Tolstoy’s short story â€Å"The Death of Ivan Ilyich.† The story begins with the death of Ivan Ilyich. Rather than morning his death, Ivan’s friends and family look for ways that they can benefit from his death. The narrative proceeds to portray the life of Ivan Ilyich leading up to his death. From a young age, Ivan displayed rather ordinary characteristics. He followed basic norms in an effort to attain a good job and upholdRead More Symbolism and Realism Essay1254 Words   |  6 PagesRealists argue that these three themes of domesticity, decay, and disconnection are linked, a connection explored especially in the Symbolist Charles Baudelaire’s poem, â€Å"Spleen LXVIII† (1862), in the Realist Leo Tolstoy’s novella, The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886), and in the Realist Anton Chekhov’s play, The Cherry Orchard (1903). Specifically, these authors argue that the various forms of modern domestic life lead to the ruination of substantial interpersonal connection. As long as one drownsRead More Futility of Life in The Death of Ivan Ilyich Essay2748 Words   |  11 PagesFutility of Life in The Death of Ivan Ilyich      Ã‚   Count Leo Tolstoy is considered Russia’s greatest novelist and one of its most influential moral philosophers. As such, he is also one of the most complex individuals for historians of literature to deal with. His early work sought to replace romanticized glory with realistic views. A good example of this is the way he often portrayed battle as an unglamorous act performed by ordinary men. After his marriage, though, Tolstoy started to reexamineRead MoreI Don t Find An Artful Death Appealing913 Words   |  4 Pagesdays on this beautiful plant. In the beginning of Being Mortal Atul Gawande wrote a sentence that sums exactly what stands in the way of a modern-day Ars Moriendi. What tormented Ivan Ilyich most, Tolstoy writes, was the deception, the lie, which for some reason, they alla accepted, that he was not dying but was simply ill, and he only need keep quiet and undergo a treatment and then something very good would result (Atul Gawande, p. 2). Ivan Ilyich was si mply dying, but no one around him wantedRead MoreThe San Diego Symphony Hall2612 Words   |  11 PagesSan Diego Symphony presented Van Cliburn Gold, a Jacobs Masterworks Concert of the 2014-15 Season. The performance was held at the Jacobs Music Center’s Copley Symphony Hall and featured works from Ludwig Van Beethoven, Serge Prokofiev, and Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The conductor for the performance was Jahja Ling, and Vadym Kholodenko performed on the piano (Bromberger, 2014, p. 13). Born approximately on December 16, 1770, in Bonn, located in the Electorate of Cologne, a principality of the Holy