Extreme Measures

<p><strong>For readers of <em>Being Mortal</em> and <em>Modern Death</em>, an ICU and Palliative Care specialist offers a framework for a better way to exit life that will change our medical culture at the deepest level</strong><br /><br />In medical school, no one teaches you how to let a patient die.<br /><br />Jessica Zitter became a doctor because she wanted to be a hero. She elected to specialize in critical care&mdash;to become an ICU physician&mdash;and imagined herself swooping in to rescue patients from the brink of death. But&nbsp;then during&nbsp;her first code&nbsp;she found herself cracking the ribs of a patient so old and frail it was unimaginable he would ever come back to life. She began to question her choice.<br /> <em><br /></em><em>Extreme Measures&nbsp;</em>charts&nbsp;Zitter's&nbsp;journey from wanting to be one kind of hero to becoming another&mdash;a doctor who prioritizes the patient's values and preferences in an environment where the default&nbsp;choice is the extreme&nbsp;use of technology. In our current medical culture, the old and the ill are put on what she terms the End-of-Life Conveyor belt. They are intubated, catheterized, and even shelved away in care facilities to&nbsp;suffer&nbsp;their final days alone, confused, and often in pain. In her work Zitter has learned what patients fear more than death itself:&nbsp;the prospect of dying badly. She builds bridges between patients and caregivers, formulates plans to allay patients'; pain and anxiety, and enlists the support of loved ones so that life can end well, even beautifully.</p> <p>Filled with rich patient stories that make a compelling medical narrative,&nbsp;<em>Extreme Measures</em> enlarges the national conversation as it thoughtfully and compassionately examines an experience that defines being human.</p>