With the End in Mind: Dying, Death and Wisdom in an Age of Denial

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I am a retired physician and I will be dying from metastatic cancer; I don't know when, I have not asked. Kathryn Mannix has spent her medical career working with people who have incurable, advanced illnesses. Even then, death is often held at bay and life prolonged at all costs: the fragile and disintegrating body is plugged into machines, pumped full of oxygen and blood and drugs, its gallant heart restarted and kept going, no matter the pain, no matter the hopelessness of the endeavour, no matter that at a certain point this isn’t living, just a slowed-down, drawn-out, painful and undignified dying.

They have all been of interest and informed me to some degree whether they illustrate personal stories or look at the bigger picture. I bought this book out of a sense of duty because of my work with Pilgrims Hospices but now I have read it I want to share it with you. It’s almost impossible to answer, yet people ask as though it’s a calculation of change from a pound. She makes the case that we should be neither ashamed nor embarrassed to talk about dying and death but that bringing our fears into the open is a healing process in itself. She doesn't fill up the book with pages of medical jargon, but instead talks about many of the patients that she has met during the years and how her job helps them to deal with end of life care.To access your ebook(s) after purchasing, you can download the free Glose app or read instantly on your browser by logging into Glose.

I found this book through a caring and compassionate recommendation at just the right time - and I pass it on in the same spirit.Like those romantic portraits of Florence Nightingale holding her lamp aloft as she walked between beds of maimed and dying soldiers, Mannix’s aim is to shed a soft, clear light on a subject she feels is too often avoided. This book tells dozens of stories about people facing the end of their lives, and how best medical and nursing personnel work together to ensure their patient experiences a good death. I could have done with more exploration of what death means to people of faith for the foundation of the Hospice movement was distinctly Christian. I truly believe each person should read this book; the stories are heartbreaking but the lessons are forever.

It is heartbreaking and sad but also life affirming and full of wonderful, interesting, inspiring people the author has encountered and cared for. The author's purpose in this book is to demystify dying and let people know that it doesn't have to be all that unpleasant. Mainly though, to feel at as much ease as is possible as she comes to the end and what that end will likely look like - which I can share with her too. In every story, she positions either herself or her palliative care colleagues as the all-knowing voice of reason, and after a while, this started to feel a bit sinister. This book contains a lot of personal stories, all different in the same way that we are all different people.What she is a big advocate of is communication, telling people what is wrong with you, getting them to ask sensitive questions, finding out if people want to be at home for their last moments, or have no real preference. I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to everyone, as it features something we all have in common.

I think I would chose to check out at some point before I lose capability of implementing the necessary "procedure" myself. I can’t agree with any of them as I thought it a well balanced, kind, considerate and helpful book which raises issues we really should be engaging with now.

Weaving the details of her own experiences as a caregiver through stories of her patients, their families, and their distinctive lives, Dr.