A Good Life to the End Taking Control of Our Inevitable Journey Through Ageing and Death

by Hillman, Ken

• ISBN13: 9781760294816
• ISBN10: 1760294810
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2019-10-01
• Publisher: Allen & Unwin

Summary

A huge majority of people at the end of their lives want to die at home, but only a small number manage to do this. This vital book asks why. Many of us have experienced an elderly loved one coming to the end of their life in a hospital—over-treated, infantilized, and, worst of all, facing a death without dignity. Families are being herded into making decisions that are not to the benefit of the patient. Professor Ken Hillman has worked in intensive care since its inception. But he is appalled by the way the ICU has become a place where the frail, soon-to-die, and dying are given unnecessary operations and life-prolonging treatments without their wishes being taken into account. A Good Life to the End will embolden and equip us to ask about the options that doctors in hospital should offer us but mostly don't. It lets us know that there are other, gentler options for patients and their loved ones that can be much more sympathetic to the final wishes of most people facing the end of their lives. An invaluable support for the elderly as well as their families, and a rallying cry for anyone who's had to witness the unnecessary suffering of a loved one, A Good Life to the End will spark debate, challenge the status quo, and change lives.

Author Biography

Ken Hillman is an intensive care specialist who is a Professor of Intensive Care at the University of New South Wales, the Foundation Director of The Simpson Centre for Health Services Research, and a member of the Ingham Institute of Applied Medical Research. He is a pioneer in the introduction of the Medical Emergency Team. He is the author of Vital Signs.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1 
1 The last six months of my mother’s life 9 
2 Ageing is not for the weak 19 
3 Because we can, we do 47 
4 Falls at the end of life 57 
5 Apoptosis 75 
6 Groundhog Day 83 
7 Cognitive decline 91 
8 Denise’s manifesto 107 
9 Intensive care sans frontières 123
10 Diagnostic dilemmas 131
11 Frailty 153
12 It is hard to die
13 The living will 175
14 Giving up the ghost 201
15 Futility 221
16 Intensive care: the beginning of the end 231
17 Knockin’ on heaven’s door 245
18 How to choose a good doctor and a good hospital 253
19 The medicalisation of grieving 267
20 The taboos of ageing, death and dying 279
21 Where to next? 289
Acknowledgements 296