Prompted by Atul Gawande's New Yorker essay ("Letting Go," which addresses similar themes as his book, Being Mortal), the author reflects on two experiences he had as a resident in the NICU, one in which all possible medical treatment was pursued inappropriately and another in which extra-ordinary measures were not applied so that a family could spend a final day with a fatally ill newborn. The author blames the broader medical system, and says his frustrations with that system led him to his current occupation as a health services researcher. In contrast to end-of-life stories that involve elderly patients or terminally ill adults, this blog post provides vivid examples of NICU treatment decision-making.
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- Link: https://theincidentaleconomist.com/wordpress/damn-you-atul-gawande/
Details
Language: English
Type of Story: Blog Post
Medium: written
Contributed by: Health Story Hub Team ( health-storyhub@uiowa.edu )
Citation: