MEDIA: Book Review –

Jan. 26, 2918 – SLOW MEDICINE , The Way to Healing , By Victoria Sweet , 289 pp. Riverhead Books. $27 – At the beginning of her book, she relates how her 93-year-old father was mistreated after being hospitalized for a seizure. He is put in 4-point restraints and sedated. Bloody urine drains from his bladder because it has been injured by a catheter insertion. Worse, his rushed doctors don’t know that this isn’t his first seizure but rather the latest in a long line that can be managed at home. The steamroller of inpatient care takes over. Every day Sweet’s father sees a different doctor. He isn’t allowed to eat or get out of bed because he is on tranquilizers. He becomes septic. His symptoms are misdiagnosed as a stroke. Doctors eventually prepare to insert a feeding tube into his stomach because he cannot swallow. Sweet and her sisters get him out of the hospital just in time. When he gets home, he has a steak and a beer.
Full Story @ NYTimes.com