We All Die Once

We All Die Once, Larry Kessler, 2012, Amazon Digital Services LLC

Many books about present-day healthcare have been written from the perspective of how to make it more efficient, while reducing the very high cost. This book looks at the rest of the medical field.

A doctor, especially an Emergency Room doctor, will run into many different ways to "handle"death. Having a loved one die at home is not always the best solution. It is understandable for a patient to expect zero errors from a doctor; it is also impossible. Doctors are only human; mistakes will be made. Also, everyone is going to die, whether sooner or later (hence the book's title). In the final analysis, the doctor will have a zero success rate.

A dirty word in the medical field is "rationing", but it happens every day. Penicillin was discovered in the late 1920's, but it wasn't until after World War II that it became available to the general public. Closer to the present, when there is more demand for a flu vaccine than supply, who decides who should get the shot? When an organ becomes available for transplant, who decides who is most needy?

Malpractice suits are a fact of life in the medical field. ER doctors and OB/GYN's can plan on being involved in at least one such suit during their career. It has become increasingly common for patients to walk into a doctor's office wanting a prescription for a pill that was advertised on TV. It doesn't matter if the doctor doesn't think they need it, or it will react badly with some other medication the patient is taking. Patients also want health insurance to be less expensive than at present, and to cover Everything, including cosmetic surgery (the author does not agree).

Written by someone who has been "in the trenches", this is a very interesting and eye-opening book. It should be required reading for anyone who wants to be a doctor; at least the student will enter medical school with their eyes wide open. This is very much worth reading.