The medical profession has developed extraordinary expertise that allows people to live much longer, much healthier lives. However, these advances, especially when used on the elderly, can extend the length, but not the quality, of that life, creating ethical, financial and emotional challenges for the physicians, the elderly patients and their families.
Katy Butler’s new book, Knocking on Heaven’s Door, The Path to a Better Way of Death, provides a first hand look at one family’s struggle with these challenges. Her father, a former college professor, suffered a major stroke that left him with significant and increasing debility. In the year following his stroke, he received a pace maker to boost a slow heart rate. Over the course of the next six years, her father developed severe dementia and needed assistance in all areas of daily life. He complained that he was “living too long”. Caring for her father took an increasing emotional and physical toll on her mother.
To read the rest of our thoughts on Katy's book visit the full blog piece at http://whiteoakcottages.com/a-book-for-our-time/