Knocking on Heaven's Door

The Path to a Better Way of Death

By: Katy Butler

Narrated by: Katy Butler

“A thoroughly researched and compelling mix of personal narrative and hard-nosed reporting that captures just how flawed care at the end of life has become” (Abraham Verghese,The New York Times Book Review).

This bestselling memoir—hailed a “triumph” by The New York Times—ponders the “Good Death” and the forces within medicine that stand in its way.

Award-winning journalist Katy Butler was living thousands of miles from her aging parents when the call came: her beloved seventy-nine-year-old father had suffered a crippling stroke. Katy and her mother joined the more than 28 million Americans who are shepherding loved ones through their final declines.

Doctors outfitted her father with a pacemaker, which kept his heart going while doing nothing to prevent a slide into dementia, near-blindness, and misery. When he said, “I’m living too long,” mother and daughter faced wrenching moral questions. Where is the line between saving a life and prolonging a dying? When do you say to a doctor, “Let my loved one go?”

When doctors refused to disable the pacemaker, condemning her father to a lingering death, Butler set out to understand why. Her quest had barely begun when her mother, faced with her own grave illness, rebelled against her doctors, refused open-heart surgery, and met death the old-fashioned way: head-on.

Part memoir, part medical history, and part spiritual guide, Knocking on Heaven’s Door is a map through the labyrinth of a broken medical system. Technological medicine, obsessed with maximum longevity, is creating more suffering than it prevents. Butler chronicles the rise of Slow Medicine, a movement bent on reclaiming the “Good Deaths” our ancestors prized. In families, hospitals, and the public sphere, this visionary memoir isinspiring the difficult conversations we must have to light the path to a better way of death.

“A lyrical meditation written with extraordinary beauty and sensitivity” (San Francisco Chronicle).

a must read

touching needs to be read a must......please share this book sooner then later, dont rehret what you could have done now, death is a cycle of life, we need to embrace it

The Absolute Truth!

As a retired Oncology/Hematology Registered Nurse, I totally agree with this author. I have always believed that quality of life is more important than quantity, especially when the patient is suffering. Over treatment of those with end stage terminal diseases and conditions usually leads to more suffering, pain, and disability. Our current society has been taught that death is something to fear, not a natural part of living. Hospice and Palliative Care are excellent options for both the patient and their families as we all must walk the path to death some day. Advance planning, legal forms, and talking to your children or relatives makes this trip so much easier for all. Thank you, Katy Butler, for being honest and writing this book.

Thank you for writing this book

Raw
Honest
Intimate
Much needed
The last , very practical chapter, could be a brochure for families and caregivers!

Important Reading For Everyone

This book is filled with critical information us all on finding good pathways to dying.

Essential Knowledge

Thank you, Ms. Butler, for sharing the story of your family's pain. This is an important read for all of us in the United States because at some point in our lives, we will be dealing with the same issues within the healthcare system.