Local Author Lauren Jodi Van Scoy’s DNR: Real Stories of Life, Death & Somewhere In Between

DNR stands for many things: Daunorubicin, Department of Natural Resources, Dialed Number Recorder, Direct normal radiation, Dynamic Noise Reduction, Domain Name Registration, and even an airport in France.

In hospitals and in this book review, it stands for Do Not Resuscitate. For me, this week, it also stood for Do Not Read—in public, that is, because I would then be the guy crying in the park or on the train or in the break room at work. Dr. Lauren Jodi Van Scoy, MD has written a book that boils all the Hollywood out of ER, House, Scrubs, Grey’s Anatomy, and any other medical drama, leaving the raw reality of the difficult times that come at the end of human life.

Walter is a 29 year old man who suffers a massive brain hemorrhage. By the time he arrives at the hospital, Dr. Van Scoy and the other Doctors are able to do a few quick tests and realize that he will never wake up, he is brain dead. 10 years ago my sister found Grandpa collapsed on the bathroom floor. He was 62 years older than Walter, but the situation from that point forward was eerily similar to what my family and I went through for the next 3 days.

I vividly remember feeling his warm hands, his still beating heart, hearing him breathe. Walter has no brain function at all, yet he “lives” through the night and even for a short while after the family has made the decision to “pull the plug.” Eventually there is closure as Grandpa’s heart and lungs also fail. To say there is confusion in that interim would be a massive understatement.

Dr. Van Scoy, or L.J., was raised a stones throw from Philly in Doylestown and went now works at Drexel University College of Medicine and Hahnemann University Hospital. Beginning in her residency, she has been with patients who have danced that fine line between death and life, some crossing over permanently, some stealing away a few more months or years of life. The five stories are very well written, blending scientific accuracy with true human emotion, hopefully preparing the reader for that inevitable moment.

Politics, religion and philosophy all get tangled up in the discussion of end of life issues, and while this book acknowledges that, it strives to strip those things away and just present the stories as they happened, allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions. Very helpfully, it provides samples of living wills and DNR directives in the appendix, and as someone who is planning on dying someday; I will most definitely be taking advantage of that.

For more information on the book or to pick up a copy for yourself, check out the book’s official website. Also, stay tuned to the Geek-award winning Talkadelphia for an upcoming interview with Dr. Van Scoy, or meet her in person this Friday, September 2th, 7 – 9 pm at the Doylestown Bookstore.