How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter (edition 1994)

I quit smoking after reading this book, so if you are trying to give up you may want to consider it :-)

Nuland writing is very easy and entertaining, and he goes over the main causes of death which are more likely to see us out - no, it is quite unlikely that we will pass away peacefully in our sleep.

Nuland goes over this by looking at specific cases he was involved in as a clinician, in a balanced way. His intention is not to scare us (if anything, he entartains the reader), and simply tells it as it is. We'll have to go through this, and there may be things each of us can do to make our demise less painful and uncorfortable.

Informative, engaging and surprisingly enjoyable. ( )

Sherwin Nuland vividly describes the various modes of death. He writes well and injects some emotion into the narrative by examples from his personal history. The last one-third of the book I found disappointing. I think he is missing the point in arguing for less focus on science and more on humanity. The futile attempts at control of cancer by chemotherapy he describes in the 80s were necessary precursors to the successful control of many cancers by chemotherapy today. The rise of multidisciplinary teams in the last few decades has led to a much better outcome for many cancer sufferers than patients of a dedicated humane physician in the past would have had. Pallliative care and hospices have taken the suffering out of dying for many patients. Medicine is in transition and science is driving the changes. Medicine, like most human knowledge, progresses by fits and starts, by experimentation, by serendipity. I think Nuland underestimates the good in heroic attempts to sustain life because the good is often obtained by future patients rather than present ones. Surely suffering in death, as in life, is less now than it has ever been in the past. ( )

Excellent overview of what happens to all of eventually. Who would not be interested,if not in denial. He opposes heroic methods at end of life. ( )

How We Die groups the myriad of biomedical ways each of us find death into categories that best explain the manner by which our bodies eventually fail. Heart failure, old age, Alzheimer's, suicide & euthanasia, AIDs and cancer are discussed in perfectly written (and translated) medical terms. Each major category comes with a handful of patient anecdotes that vividly illustrate his point. Nuland not only writes of the importance of humane treatment of patients and their families, but also of how the disease that has affected them was originally discovered, providing quite a bit of medical history.
Nuland is an excellent writer and offers a book so well crafted that the result is a thought-provoking, poignant, and educational volume on death, which is "not a confrontation. It is simply an event in the sequence of nature's ongoing rhythms." (10) ( )

Clearly written examination of the actual mechanics of human death from various common causes--heart disease, stroke, cancer, trauma, Alzheimer's Disease, and the myriad diseases that incrementally kill AIDS patients.
The author also provides relevant anecdotes from medical history and thoughtful examinations of the social, ethical, and existential impact of death, dying, and suffering.
I enjoyed it, but this book might be too grim for some readers, especially those with health problems. ( )