Dying in Peace…Is it Possible?

We are not alone. There are dedicated and caring health professional seeking to make a significant difference in the way we experience our dying. We want dignity and respect in a nurturing environment. All that is possible if we take time to examine our personal preferences and communicate with our care providers and loved ones.

More Caring Doctors Devoted to Improving Our End of Life Experience

Atul Gwande, MD

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End
by Atul Gawande, MD, MPH
Physician Atul Gwande guides us through an examination of modern medicine and how it can enable or complicate the human process of dying. He shows us that what matters most is notably how we view our own mortality but how we live from now until then

Find it at your library or order it online.

Ira Byock, MD

Dying Well
Peace and Possibilities at the End of Life
by Ira Byock, MD
A former president of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, Ira Byock, MD has devoted his life to defining and implementing “whole person care” end of life care. Through stories from the bedside care of seriously ill patients and families, Dr. Byock shows us to effective ways to communicate with doctors, friends and relatives and to create a loving and meaningful environment at the end of life, Learn more about Ira Byock and his work in palliative care medicine HERE.
Find the book in your local library or order it online

Angelo Volandes, MD

The Conversation
A Revolutionary Plan for End of Life Care
by Angelo Volandes, MD
Through stories of seven different patients and seven different end of life experiences, Angelo Volandes guides us to an understanding that the most important thing we need in end of life care is a caring conversation with our loved ones and care providers about what matter most to us.
Find the book at your local library or order it online

Chronicles of Living and Dying

The Bright Hour:
A Memoir of Living and Dying
by Nina Riggs

How does a dying person learn to live each day “unattached to outcome”? How does one approach the moments, big and small, with both love and honesty? How does a young mother and wife prepare her two young children and adored husband for a loss that will shape the rest of their lives? How do we want to be remembered? Exploring motherhood, marriage, friendship, and memory, Nina asks: What makes a meaningful life when one has limited time?
Find it at your local library or order it online.

When Breath Becomes Air
by Paul Kalanithi, MD
A chronicle of transformation. At one moment Paul Kalanithi was competing ten years of training to be a neurosurgeon. In the next, he learned that he had inoperable lung cancer. His compelling narrative describes his search for what creates a meaningful life.
Find the book at our local library or order it online

Ted Talk
What Makes Life Worth Living in the Face of Death
by Lucy Kalanithi, widow of Paul Kalanithi

Living and Dying: a Love Story

Watch the video here.

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