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Jessie Richardson
Sarah Creed is a hospice worker with Gawande’s hospital. She explains to Gawande that the goal of hospice is to allow people with terminal illnesses to have the fullest lives possible in the present. Her treatment focuses on freedom from pain and maintaining mental awareness, not on lifespan or cures.
Sarah Creed Quotes in Being Mortal
The Being Mortal quotes below are all either spoken by Sarah Creed or refer to Sarah Creed. 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
The difference between standard medical care and hospice is not the difference between treating and doing nothing, she explained. The difference was in the priorities. In ordinary medicine, the goal is to extend life. We’ll sacrifice the quality of your existence now—by performing surgery, providing chemotherapy, putting you in intensive care—for the chance of gaining time later. Hospice deploys nurses, doctors, chaplains, and social workers to help people with a fatal illness have the fullest possible lives right now—much as nursing home reformers deploy staff to help people with severe disabilities. In terminal illness that means focusing on objectives like freedom from pain and discomfort, or maintaining mental awareness for as long as feasible, or getting out with family once in a while—not on whether Cox’s life would be longer or shorter. Nonetheless, when she was transferred to hospice care, her doctors thought that she wouldn’t live much longer than a few weeks. With the supportive hospice therapy she received, she had already lived for a year.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Being Mortal LitChart as a printable PDF.
Sarah Creed Quotes in Being Mortal
The Being Mortal quotes below are all either spoken by Sarah Creed or refer to Sarah Creed. 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
The difference between standard medical care and hospice is not the difference between treating and doing nothing, she explained. The difference was in the priorities. In ordinary medicine, the goal is to extend life. We’ll sacrifice the quality of your existence now—by performing surgery, providing chemotherapy, putting you in intensive care—for the chance of gaining time later. Hospice deploys nurses, doctors, chaplains, and social workers to help people with a fatal illness have the fullest possible lives right now—much as nursing home reformers deploy staff to help people with severe disabilities. In terminal illness that means focusing on objectives like freedom from pain and discomfort, or maintaining mental awareness for as long as feasible, or getting out with family once in a while—not on whether Cox’s life would be longer or shorter. Nonetheless, when she was transferred to hospice care, her doctors thought that she wouldn’t live much longer than a few weeks. With the supportive hospice therapy she received, she had already lived for a year.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
