Have you had problems when you try to navigate the bureaucracy of our modern medical system? Here is a powerful story of beautiful and sad things: love, loyalty, and loss. Lawrence Krubner recounts two episodes, first, the events surrounding his father's death from cancer, second, the time his mother nearly died of pneumonia. He concludes that his family would have been better off if they'd had a patient advocate with them. Even though every doctor and nurse is typically doing their very best to keep their patients healthy, the sheer complexity of the overall system sometimes gets in the way of the best outcomes. Life often forces us to make the most difficult decisions when we are under the greatest stress. Ambushed by the tragedy of illness, Krubner's family often stumbled when dealing with the unthinking, rigid processes that shaped their experiences with hospitals, nurses, and doctors. The pain of losing a loved one never really fades. Even years later, many of us still long to have one more conversation with those we have lost. This is a very beautiful book, about some very beautiful things: the love between a father and son, the good memories of certain childhood joys, and loyalty in the face of bitter odds. But mosty it is a story of loss. It is also a story of questions, of doubts, of wondering if things could have gone better. After recounting these deeply personal stories, Krubner then suggests a possible reform to the medical system: for better integration of all the many specialists who interact with a patient, a patient advocate would help a family understand what needs to be done, and could better advocate to get the right resources, at the right time, from the medical system. In the same way that a family going to court will hire a lawyer, it should be normal for a family, when dealing with the medical system, to have a patient advocate, someone neutral who knows the system and can guide them through it. If you have faced a difficult situation in the American medical system, please consider sharing your story at: We Need Patient Advocates http: //www.weneedpatientadvocates.com/