Lynda E

“What were her biggest fears and concerns? What goals were most important to her? What trade-offs was she willing to make, and what ones was she not? Not everyone is able to answer such questions,”
― Atul Gawande, Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End

“This is the consequence of a society that faces the final phase of the human life cycle by trying not to think about it. We end up with institutions that address any number of societal goals—from freeing up hospital beds to taking burdens off families’ hands to coping with poverty among the elderly—but never the goal that matters to the people who reside in them: how to make life worth living when we’re weak and frail and can’t fend for ourselves anymore.”
― Atul Gawande, Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End

“need to understand how much you’re willing to go through to have a shot at being alive and what level of being alive is tolerable to you.”
― Atul Gawande, Being Mortal: Illness, Medicine and What Matters in the End

“ODTAA syndrome: the syndrome of One Damn Thing After Another.”
― Atul Gawande, Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End