Making Rounds with Oscar - David Dosa

Making Rounds with Oscar - David Dosa (2010)

We all know the story, Oscar is the cat at the nursing home, who goes in and sleeps with the residents an hour or two before they die. It has been all over the news and blogosphere in the past year, and I never expected to be surprised by the book.

However, I thought the book was touching and did a great job of avoidng the the cheesiness that it could have become. Dr Dosa, the author is a geriatrician on the unit, in charge of his patients. When the nursing staff and families start mentioning Oscars visits, at first he brushes it off, especially as he is not a cat person.

However, upon further investigation, he starts to ask around, and find out if Oscars predictions are true. By doing that he learns more about his patients and their families. What surprised me in this book, was its honest and caring discussions about end of life care, especially in those patients with advanced dementia, a topic which is often somewhat taboo.

It has to be a 5/5 for me, as I have told several people about this book, and would recommend it to all, especially if you have aging family members or parents. I love that in the last sentance of the afterward, Dr Dosa says that if he has to choose between the ICU and the cat, he will take the cat every time. Me too.