Coping with chronic illness and Terminal Disease

The Anatomy of Hope – Jerome Groopman, M.D., holds the Dina and Raphael Recanati Chair of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School and is the chief of experimental medicine at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

His previous books were: ‘The Measure of Our Days’ and ‘Second Opinions’.
Groopman writes from a long career in research and patient care and out of a personal background of faith and courage.

After years of treating patients and enduring his own afflictions, Groopman sought to understand more about the emotional and physical interplay in coping with pathology.

This book takes the reader beyond the ordinary.

What is hope for the terminally ill patient?

Groopman says that “…I am searching for hope. Hope, I have come to believe, is as vital to our lives as the very oxygen that we breathe...” p. 208

Further, he says that “… Each disease is uncertain in its outcome, and within that uncertainty, we find real hope, because a tumor has not always read the textbook, and a treatment can have an unexpectedly dramatic impact. This is the great paradox of true hope: Because nothing is absolutely determined, there is not only reason to fear but also reason to hope. And we must find ways to bridle fear and give greater rein to hope…” p. 210

“ … I see hope as the very heart of healing…” p. 212