When My Time Comes: Conversations About Whether Those Who Are Dying Should Have

Description: When My Time Comes by Diane Rehm A candid, compassionate consideration of the Right-to-Die movement, from the advocate, renowned radio host, and bestselling author, Diane Rehm, one of the most trusted voices in the nation. With a foreword by John Grisham.The renowned radio host and one of the most trusted voices in the nation candidly and compassionately addresses the hotly contested right-to-die movement, of which she is one of our most inspiring champions. The basis for the acclaimed PBS series.Through interviews with terminally ill patients and their relatives, as well as physicians, ethicists, religious leaders, and representatives of both those who support and vigorously oppose this urgent movement, Rehm gives voice to a broad range of people personally linked to the realities of medical aid in dying. With characteristic evenhandedness, she provides the full context for this highly divisive issue and presents the fervent arguments-both for and against-that are propelling the current debate- Should we adopt laws allowing those who are dying to put an end to their suffering?Featuring a deeply personal foreword by John Grisham, When My Time Comes is a response to many misconceptions and misrepresentations of end-of-life care. It is a call to action-and to conscience-and it is an attempt to heal and soothe, reminding us that death, too, is an integral part of life.Dont miss John Grishams new book, THE EXCHANGE- AFTER THE FIRM, coming soon! FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Author Biography John Grisham is the author of forty-seven consecutive #1 bestsellers, which have been translated into nearly fifty languages. His recent books include The Judges List, Sooley, and his third Jake Brigance novel, A Time for Mercy, which is being developed by HBO as a limited series.Grisham is a two-time winnerof the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and was honored with the Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction.When hes not writing, Grisham serves on the board of directors of the Innocence Project and of Centurion Ministries, two national organizations dedicated to exonerating those who have been wrongfully convicted. Much of his fiction explores deep-seated problems in our criminal justice system.John lives on a farm in central Virginia. Promotional "Headline" A candid, compassionate consideration of the Right-to-Die movement, from the advocate, renowned radio host, and bestselling author, Diane Rehm, one of the most trusted voices in the nation. With a foreword by John Grisham. Excerpt from Book Barbara Coombs Lee PRESIDENT, COMPASSION & CHOICES Barbara Coombs Lee began her medical career as a candy striper at St. Joseph Hospital in Joliet, Illinois. As she writes in her book, Finish Strong: Putting Your Priorities First at Lifes End, shes been working in health care for almost fifty-five years, specializing in intensive care and emergency rooms, caring for very ill patients, helping them stay alive. However, she came to believe in an individuals right to finish life on his or her own terms. She remembers the day: May 19, 1994, the day Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis died of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. She writes: "Her son, John F. Kennedy, Jr., emerged from her apartment that morning and comforted the crowd that stood grieving on Fifth Avenue. He said, My mother died surrounded by her friends and her family and her books. She did it in her own way and on her own terms. And we all feel lucky for that. " Barbara said that moment motivated her to find a way to avert the suffering that so many undergo at the end of life. She became a public advocate, gaining admission to the Oregon State Bar, and ultimately joining the staff of the Oregon Senate Healthcare and Bioethics Committee. In 1994, the year of her conversion, she became one of the three chief petitioners who filed the Oregon Death with Dignity Act as a citizens initiative. She writes, "I spent the next fourteen years defending the resulting Death with Dignity law from efforts to undo it in every governmental arena--legislative, executive and judicial." Oregons law had been embattled until 2006, when the U.S. Supreme Court finally ruled that states have the authority to adopt medical aid in dying as part of the legitimate practice of medicine. On February 12, 2019, I interviewed Barbara for my podcast, On My Mind. I began by asking her about the lessons she had learned from caring for people who had not died well, who had had unwanted treatments and been kept alive against their wishes. "The technology that medicine wields, and of which we are so proud, is not necessarily in an individuals best interest. Only individuals can review their lives, their beliefs, their values, and decide what is best for them. It took many more years and many more bedside experiences in intensive care units, emergency rooms, nursing homes, et cetera, before I had what you might call a broader understanding of peoples end-of-life journey. I learned that it might be different for each of us. Its as though medicine has gotten ahead of human desire. There are so many ways to keep us alive, and yet the incredibly sophisticated means of keeping people alive dont always take into account what people themselves want." Barbara calls dying in America a "terrible mess." She says, "We torture people with treatments that are futile and enormously burdensome, robbing them of the precious quality of their remaining days, robbing them of the time they would otherwise want to devote to the priorities of their lives, the legacy of memories they would like to leave their loved ones. We concentrate on extending the absolute duration of life irrespective of how dismal and degraded and burdensome the quality of that life might be. Something like 30 to 40 percent of people have an ICU admission in the last thirty days of life. Nine out of ten people with dementia--profound dementia--have some sort of invasive procedure. In the last month of life, we are replacing humanity with technology." Diane: Tell the story of Maria, an eighty-two-year-old who has do not resuscitate, or DNR, orders. What happened to her? Barbara: She had her advance directive. She made sure everyone had the directive and knew she did not want to have any resuscitation efforts applied when she was admitted to the hospital emergency room for some abdominal pain. She had done what were supposed to do, and she did it in spades. She wanted to make sure that everyone in the hospital knew about her request, and that if some calamity happened during her hospitalization, she would not have to undergo resuscitation efforts. And then, one night, very peacefully, her heart stopped and her advance directive was just ignored. She was given CPR entirely against the likelihood that she would be revived. She was revived and taken to the ICU, and her son and grandson were told what had happened to her. And they visited her in the ICU, and she was devastated. She was alert. She was angry. She couldnt speak because there were tubes in her mouth and down her throat. But she knew she had been violated. D:But how could this happen? If she went into the hospital with an advance directive, why was it ignored? How frequently does that happen? B:The sad truth, Diane, is that advance directives are often ignored, particularly in situations like this, when a sudden catastrophe occurs. Advance directives on their face apply in two circumstances. If a person is terminally ill or permanently unconscious, thats when medical providers are told to honor the wishes of the patient. Well, physicians are loath to say that someone is "terminally ill" or "permanently unconscious." I would venture to say that even if Marias physicians were aware there was an advance directive and a desire to refuse CPR, they would have ignored it anyway, because in their minds, shes not terminally ill. They think theyre going to bring her back! Shes just having a little spell, and they can bring her around. In legal terms, the conditions of terminal illness or permanent unconsciousness in her advance directive have not been met. D:That makes me wonder whether if something were to happen to me--if Im having a heart attack or a stroke--I would really want to go to a hospital. B:Theres a balance. If I see someone drop down on the sidewalk in front of me and her heart has stopped, I wouldnt consult her advance directive either. Id give her a good thump and see if I can restart her heart. But in very short order, someone needs to inquire what the persons desires are. Would he or she want a vigorous resuscitation effort? And for how long? The atrocity that was committed on Maria was not that she got one shock, but that she was held captive in the ICU and they refused to take her off these machines and take out the tubes, even when she communicated by hand squeezes. They did not honor her specific instruction. D:Had Maria been in a religiously affiliated hospital? B:No. I think its more indicative of the prevailing mentality and the desire of the medical community to not give up too soon. The determination to bring her back. Compare Marias story with Lorraine Bayless, the woman who had the "good fortune" to die on the cafeteria floor of her independent living facility. She was not subjected to CPR because it was not the facilitys policy, but someone called 911. And once 911 was involved, all the death aversion in our society and our nation swept full force into the cafeteria. The 911 operator just would not let go. I think the woman was about eighty-five, and shed had a sudden massive stroke. She was very close to death. And the people around her wanted someone to breathe into her mouth or get paddles. D:As I recall from your book, the care facility in which the woman resided was prohibited from doing anything to actively try to resuscitate. Articles then appeared in The New York Times and elsewhere calling the institution cruel because it did not lift a finger to resuscitate. B:Right. You know, I wish I could pull up some of those news clips where very young journalists on the evening news were opining that this woman had been terribly abused, that in spite of her advanced age she wouldve been likely to bounce back from a total collapse of her cerebral vascular and cardiovascular systems and go on to lead a high-quality life for many years, and that the institution depriving her of this opportunity was criminal. Her daughters came to the situation with much more common sense and an intimate knowledge of their mother and her desires. They said, "We are not litigious people. Moreover, our mom knew what she wanted. She wanted to be in an institution where she could die peacefully. And so we wont be suing anyone for granting her wish." D:What exactly are you advising people to do, so that they can "finish strong"? B:Finish in a way that aligns with your priorities. Make sure it is a fitting closure to your values and beliefs. My book is really not a book about dying. Its a book about living. Its a book about living fully and not being abducted onto a conveyor belt of medical technology that leads to a robbing of your priorities, and a displacement of the things that you value most at the end of life. Live your last precious months or weeks, or even years, according to the things that give you the most joy. D:I believe that one of the critical elements of "finishing strong" is having a conversation with children, parents, loved ones, and friends as to exactly what you want. There are so many people reluctant to raise the subject. Its the last taboo. We dont talk about death. I remember speaking in a church in Massachusetts. There were about three or four hundred people in the congregation, and I began by saying, "Please raise your hand if you plan not to die." And of course there was great giggling in the audience, but it was an uncomfortable giggling. People just dont want to raise the subject. How do we get past that? B:I would say its not just one conversation but many conversations, an ongoing dialogue. That includes recording your values and priorities in a video or on your iPhone or something, so that peopl Details ISBN0525563857 Author Diane Rehm Short Title When My Time Comes Pages 256 Language English Year 2021 ISBN-10 0525563857 ISBN-13 9780525563853 Format Paperback DEWEY 179.7 Place of Publication New York Country of Publication United States AU Release Date 2021-02-16 NZ Release Date 2021-02-16 US Release Date 2021-02-16 Publication Date 2021-02-16 UK Release Date 2021-02-16 Illustrator Lea Lyon Translator Peter Constantine Birth 1939 Death 1939 Affiliation University of Connecticut Position Professor of Sociology, Chair and Adjunct Professor of History of Health Sciences Qualifications Ph.D. Publisher Random House USA Inc Imprint Random House USA Inc Subtitle Conversations About Whether Those Who Are Dying Should Have the Right to Determine When Life Should End Audience General We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:131205675;

Price: 27.08 AUD

Location: Melbourne

End Time: 2025-01-05T09:02:05.000Z

Shipping Cost: 0 AUD