Having the end-of-life talk is never easy for anyone and no one is ever really prepared to have that discussion. Join us along with Ohio’s Hospice of Dayton for the documentary viewing of Being Mortal.
This documentary featuring Dr. Atul Gawande, explores death, dying and why even doctors struggle to discuss being mortal with patients in his documentary, Being Mortal. “Aging and dying — you can’t fix those,” says Dr. Gawande. This film examines the relationships between doctors and patients nearing the end of life, and how the medical profession can better help people navigate mortality. He examines its ultimate limitations and failures – in his own practices as well as others’ – as life draws to a close. And he discovers how we can do better. His eye-opening research and gripping stories of his own patients and family, Gawande reveals the suffering this dynamic has produced. Nursing homes, devoted to safety, battle with residents over the food they are allowed to eat and the choices they are allowed to make. Doctors, uncomfortable discussing patients’ anxieties about death, fall back on false hopes and treatments that are actually shortening lives instead of improving them. And families go along with all of it.
Atul Gawande is a practicing surgeon, who has fearlessly revealed the struggles of his profession. He follows a hospice nurse on her rounds, a geriatrician in his clinic, and reformers turning nursing homes upside down. He finds people who show us how to have hard conversations and how to ensure we never sacrifice what people really care about. Riveting, honest, and humane, Being Mortal shows that the ultimate goal is not a good death but a good life – all the way to the very end.
This FREE event on October 27th will finish with a discussion led by Kim Vesey, General Manager at Ohio’s Hospice of Dayton. To register click the link! https://beforeidieohio.com/register/