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Bill Thomas
Susan Block is a palliative care specialist at Gawande’s hospital. She personally understands the importance of having difficult conversations with patients, as she had a difficult conversation with her father Jack before a risky surgery about what kind of life would be acceptable to him. But when complications arose during the surgery, she was grateful to have had the conversation, because only by having it could she properly guide the doctors on how to treat her father.
Susan Block Quotes in Being Mortal
The Being Mortal quotes below are all either spoken by Susan Block or refer to Susan Block. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 6 Quotes
“If I had not had that conversation with him,” she told me, “my instinct would have been to let him go at that moment because it just seemed so awful. And I would have beaten myself up. Did I let him go too soon?” Or she might have gone ahead and sent him to surgery, only to find—as occurred—that he was faced with a year of “very horrible rehab” and disability. “I would have felt so guilty that I condemned him to that,” she said. “But there was no decision for me to make.” He had decided.
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Explanation and Analysis:
When Susan Block’s father Jack experiences complications in his surgery, she expresses how lucky she feels to have had a conversation with him about what he wanted beforehand. This episode illustrates the value of having end-of-life discussions before people reach crises. This is true not only for people like Jack, whose lives are in question, but also for people like Block herself, who can feel more comfortable with the decision-making because she knows she is doing what her father would want. Only by identifying his priorities—being able to eat ice cream and watch TV—is Susan able to then make sure Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perfer
Chapter 7 Quotes
I realized then that my father had already told us what to do, just as Susan Block’s father had. My dad was more afraid of becoming quadriplegic than of dying. I therefore asked Benzel which posed the greater risk of his becoming quadriplegic in the next couple months: stopping or proceeding? Stopping, he said. We told him to proceed.
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When complications arise during Gawande’s father’s surgery, Gawande expresses his relief that he had a conversation about his father’s priorities prior to the surgery. As such, Gawande is able to make an informed decision about the surgery based on that conversation, highlighting the importance of being able to confront difficult topics before crises occur. Only then can people like Gawande’s father live out his final days and die in the way that he wishes. This is made even more evident after the surgery—because of Gawande’s decision, his father survives and he doesn’t lose any motor function, as they feared. Although Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Duci
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Susan Block Character Timeline in Being Mortal
The timeline below shows where the character Susan Block appears in Being Mortal. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 6
...that “prolong your life” sounded harsh, like Gawande was dropping her off a cliff. Susan Block, a palliative care specialist, explains that doctors often make mistakes in these conversations: for them,...
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Block’s 74-year-old father Jack was admitted to a hospital 10 years earlier with a mass growing...
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...Doctors could save his life, but the bleeding would likely leave him disabled forever. When Block learned that he would still be able to eat ice cream and watch football, she...
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Block and Jack had the necessary conversation to figure out when to switch from fighting for...
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Chapter 7
...father wants out of the end of his life. Gawande tells him about Jack (Susan Block’s father), who said if he could still watch football on TV and eat ice cream,...
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