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1-Page Summary of When Breath Becomes Air

Overall Summary

Paul Kalanithi was a neurosurgeon who battled with cancer. He wrote a memoir about his experiences and it’s called When Breath Becomes Air. It follows his life from childhood to death, and is laced with deep philosophical thought and literary prose. His meditations combine the expertise of a professional with the experience of a patient, resulting in a book that communicates extremely profound meaning about life and death.

Kalanithi grew up in Arizona, where he was very close to nature. He loved reading and realized that it would be important for him to study literature as well as biology. While working on his master’s degree in English literature, Kalanithi decided that he wanted a career in medicine instead of becoming a writer.

Some of the author’s most vivid memories from medical school involve studying cadavers. At that point, he realized there were two sides to practicing medicine: It was both miraculous and mundane. He chose neurosurgery as his concentration.

Paul marries his girlfriend, Lucy. They move to California for their respective residencies. Paul works a lot at Stanford but he takes on more responsibility as time goes on. He realizes that every interaction with patients is important and can be the difference between them getting better or not. As years go by, he gains experience in various fields of medicine which qualifies him for his dream job at the end of residency.

Paul and Lucy were on the brink of separation when Paul was diagnosed with cancer.

Paul works to finish his residency while coping with his illness. He pushes himself to continue working in the OR until he has to begin cancer treatment. His decision is between two treatments, and one of them will allow him to keep doing neurosurgery. He sees how patients’ fates are reflected in his own decisions and asks himself what makes life meaningful.

Paul doesn’t want to spend the rest of his life avoiding sadness. He wants to work within his limitations and find what gives him meaning in life. Paul and Lucy decide to have a child because they think it will provide them with more meaning.

A brief period of wellness makes him think that he is cured, but a CT scan reveals that the cancer has returned. He begins chemotherapy and experiences severe side effects. He no longer sees recovery on the horizon and must rethink his life without treatment.

Because of this, he decided to prioritize his writing over being a neurosurgeon. If he had forty years left, he would have spent half the time on medicine and half the time on writing.

Paul is rushed to the hospital when his daughter, Cady, is born. However, he gets there just in time and spends eight months with her in the hospital. Paul experiences a lot of joy during this period and wants his daughter to know that she has made him happier than he’s ever been before in his life.

Paul’s health deteriorated after Lucy gave birth to Cady. He died eight months later and his family wrote the Epilogue of the book, reflecting on their final few months with him. They decided to celebrate his life by writing this book, which he worked on during chemotherapy treatments for cancer. Paul hoped that others would be helped through it.

Prologue

The book opens with Paul sitting in a hospital room with his wife, Lucy. He says that he doesn’t think it’s cancer, but she tells him to stop saying that.

Paul was on his way to becoming a neurosurgeon. He had just completed his residency and was about fifteen months away from getting a job at Stanford University. In the middle of this success, he began experiencing back pain and weight loss. He went to see the doctor, who took an x-ray of his body that showed nothing wrong with him. However, the pain in his chest returned again soon after, so he decided to take some ibuprofen for it. The medication dulled the pain but didn’t get rid of it completely. One day while Lucy saw her husband lying in a park looking up information on his phone regarding these symptoms she wondered why he wasn’t confiding in her about them like they used to do when something bothered them before their marriage started falling apart. Paul changed the subject and put away his phone as if nothing happened.