Death Interrupted - by Blair Bigham (Paperback)

About the Book

ICU doctor Blair Bigham shares his first-hand experiences of how medicine has complicated the way we die and offers a road map for dying in the modern era.

Book Synopsis

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

In Death Interrupted, ICU doctor Blair Bigham shares his first-hand experiences of how medicine has complicated the way we die and offers a road map for dying in the modern era.

Doctors today can call on previously unimaginable technologies to help keep our bodies alive almost indefinitely. But this unprecedented shift in intensive care has created a major crisis. In the widening grey zone between life and death, doctors fight with doctors, families feel pressured to make tough decisions about their loved ones, and lawyers are left to argue life-and-death cases in the courts. Meanwhile, intensive care patients are caught in purgatory, attached to machines and unable to speak for themselves.

Through conversations with critical care and end-of-life professionals--including ethicists, social workers, nurses, and doctors--and observations from his own time working in ambulances, emergency rooms, and the icu, Dr. Blair Bigham exposes the tensions inherent in this new era of dying by addressing the tough questions facing us all.

Review Quotes

"Skillfully written and well-researched, Death Interrupted offers a thought-provoking read." -- Miramichi Reader

"Bigham consults a number of experts in the field as well as combing his own experiences. ... [Death Interrupted] explores a relatively new issue for which there are no easy answers." -- Winnipeg Free Press