Overview

Dancing with Broken Bones gives voice and face to a vulnerable and disempowered population whose stories often remain untold: the urban dying poor. Drawing on complex issues surrounding poverty, class, and race, Moller illuminates the unique sufferings that often remain unknown and hidden within a culture of broad invisibility. He demonstrates how a complex array of factors, such as mistrust of physicians, regrettable indignities in care, and inadequate communication among providers, patients, and families, shape the experience of the dying poor in the inner city. This book challenges readers to look at reality in a different way. Demystifying stereotypes that surround poverty, Moller illuminates how faith, remarkable optimism, and an unassailable spirit provide strength and courage to the dying poor. Dancing with Broken Bones serves as a rallying call for compassionate individuals everywhere to understand and respond to the needs of the especially vulnerable, yet inspiring, people who comprise the world of the inner city dying poor.

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9780199760138

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Read this book. It will remind you why you became a physician. The Lancet Moller has produced a profound literary work. -- Journal of Social Work in End-of-Life & Palliative Care.. .stories of courage, faith, suffering, and neglect are interwoven in a remarkable book for anyone with an interest in end-of-life care. -- Journal of Palliative Medicine Moller takes us through doors that we otherwise would not cross. He introduces us to people who are authentically themselves, fully alive, despite dismal circumstances. We hear their anger as well as their humor, see their suffering as well as their joy. They teach us the importance of feeling connected to others and the critical value of forgiveness, gratitude, and love at the end of life. Suffering misfortune that few of us can imagine, the people whose stories Moller tells reveal the inherent dignity and the indomitable nature of the human spirit. -- Ira Byock, MD, author of DyingWell, and co-founder of Life's End Institute: Missoula Demonstration Project For most of us, the lives and deaths of the urban homeless remain invisible and largely unfathomable. Dr. Moller and his colleagues have had the courage to enter this world, and to even take medical students with them! In Dancing with Broken Bones, we too are invited along to witness its tragedies and its humanity. In these remarkable real-life narratives, we can contemplate what a dignified death might look like in the face of extreme poverty and homelessness. In doing so, we are invited to consider what is important in our own privileged lives and deaths, and how we should be caring for those who are far less fortunate. --Timothy E. Quill, MD, Professor of Medicine, Psychiatry and Medical Humanities, Palliative Care Program and Program for Biopsychosocial Studies, University of Rochester School of Medicine Dr. Moller has shed light on the forgotten world of illness and dying in the urban poor. Through eloquenc

<br> Read this book. It will remind you why you became a physician. --The Lancet<br> Moller has produced a profound literary work. --Journal of Social Work in End-of-Life & Palliative Care<br>. ..stories of courage, faith, suffering, and neglect are interwoven in a remarkable book for anyone with an interest in end-of-life care. --Journal of Palliative Medicine<br>

Author Information

David Wendell Moller is Chair of the Department of Bioethics at Kansas City University if Medicine and Biosciences. Previously, he served as Director of Human Values in Medicine at Saint Luke's Hospital of Kansas City, and he has held academic positions at the University of Missouri - Kansas City School of Medicine, Indiana University, and Fort Hays State University. Moller has lectured extensively on the human encounter with mortality, and has authored several books that explore the intersection of cutlure, society, and the experience of dying.

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