At Deaths' Door: End of Life Stories from the Bedside
By Gini Graham Scott, Sebastian Sepulveda MD / Narrated By Marlin May
Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
Sepulveda reminds us that Life is toooo short to waste on books like this!
Stop me if you’ve heard this one:
“A guy sees Dr. Sepulveda in the hospital and asks, ‘Doc! I got a hangnail—can you help me out?’ Dr. Sepulveda responds, ‘First, sign a DNR. Then? Well, you chew your nails so you deserve the death I’m not going to save you from…’”
Hilarious, right? Try almost ELEVEN hours of stuff like that, and it gets pretty wretched, however. And maybe I’m kidding about the hangnail, but only kinda sorta.
At Death’s Door: End of Life Stories from the Bedside is not a book brimming with insight, compassion, or wisdom. Rather, it’s a large chunk of time used on listening to Sepulveda browbeat patients into signing DNRs and DNIs. Time you’ll never get back. And if that wasn’t bad enough, add to it Sepulveda’s refrain of: They brought it on themselves, and you’re into really, really wanting to either roll your eyes or throttle the man. Tobacco use! Overeating! Risky behavior! I mean, honestly. Aren’t each of us going to have to face our own deaths somewhere along the way? Forget about what causes it for a bit and just remember that it’s coming up no matter what we do, how we live our lives. There’s no sensitivity here, no mercy. If a person is contributing to their current predicament, maybe they don’t deserve to go back to such lives he thinks.
I get it, Sepulveda. I really do. You’ve seen FAR more of the results of human folly up close and personal for many, many years. You’ve seen what people do to themselves, yet you’re called in to save the day over and over and over. But, really? Holy cow! How about a little human kindness?
And please don’t get me wrong. I’m totally a fan of DNRs, and I have nightmares of someone going to great lengths to save my life even if it means living in a vegetative state. I’m sure that’s okay for some but not for me; and that’s where a solid DNR can be so reassuring.
But eleven hours of You Need A DNR Before I’ll Even Exam You? Plus, May as a narrator delivers it all in imperious tones, sneering, jeering on the one hand, showing an utter world weariness on the other. Too much I tell you. I got it from Audible at the time, and trust me: I returned this audiobook.
So, I got my credit back. Now? I’m just wondering how I’m going to deal with the loss of all that time. Life is simply too wonderfully, too woefully, short.
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