Sublime

Nuland was a renowned surgeon-philosopher whose seminal book about mortality, How We Die, had come out when I was in high school but made it into my hands only in medical school. Few books I had read so directly and wholly

You’re taking too long. How much blood can a patient lose before death is imminent? When she didn’t reply, he all but shouted. How much blood? “Five pints.” Correct. And your blundering has cost her at least three. Dr. Seldon,

As documented by Sherwin Nuland, clinical professor of surgery at Yale University and National Book Award winner for How We Die: Reflections on Life’s Final Chapter, many Americans have fallen prey to the idea, now avidly marketed by many big players in the health care industry, that medicine can offer a remedy to nature.