Paul Kalanithi
Words have a longevity I do not.
It has been a long time since I’ve read an entire book in one day, but when you read a book this good it’s not like you have a choice.
This book helped me to understand the weight placed on the shoulders of medical professionals. While simple to understand, implementing the Hippocratic dictum to “do no harm” is incredibly difficult. Dr. Kalanithi’s broad understanding of living meant that “do no harm” extended to all spheres of a patient’s life:
Before operating on a patient’s brain, I realized, I must first understand his mind: his identity, his values, what makes his life worth living, and what devastation makes it reasonable to let that life end. The cost of my dedication to succeed was high, adn the ineluctable failures brought me nearly unbearable guilt. Those burdens are what make medicine holy and wholly impossible: in taking up another’s cross, one must sometimes get crushed by the weight.
Thus, sometimes saving the life of the patient that he served meant recognizing that the life that they once had was already dead. His transition from the idealism of a young medical student to the maturity of a head resident was amazing. He recognized the need to sacrifice, to truly live, in order to have an impact. He recognized that a life worth examining meant dedicating it to communities and people that were around him.
There is no way I could sum up this book in a single review. But I think that the best attempt was done by Dr. Kalanithi’s widow:
Paul’s decision to look death in the eye was a testament not just to who he was in the final hours of his life but who he had always been. For much of his life, Paul wondered about death – and whether he could face it with integrity. In the end, the answer was yes.
I think we can just hope to live like him.
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