Rage and Reconciliation: Inspiring a Health Care Revolution (Medical Humanities) - Softcover

9780870745034: Rage and Reconciliation: Inspiring a Health Care Revolution (Medical Humanities)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0870745034 ISBN 13: 9780870745034

Publisher: Southern Methodist University Press,U.S., 2005

In these often intense and searing personal essays, a lawyer describes her see-sawing emotions over a misdiagnosis of what she was told was an inoperable tumor - and her anger at her physician's cavalier attitude about the mistake; a physician formerly employed by an HMO rails at the accepted practice of managed care organizations finding legal loopholes to trump a patient's needs; a physician wrestles with the idea of doctors policing themselves, knowing he is powerless in the face of an incompetent colleague. An expansion of a special issue of the journal "Creative Nonfiction", this volume of essays by patients and their caretakers, physicians, and health care providers is intended to serve as a foundation for future dialogue and a means to begin to heal the wounds in our health care system. The accompanying 80-minute audio CD contains three of the essays read by actors and a panel discussion of the ethical dimension of the issues raised.

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Review:

"Once I heard a transplant surgeon reprimand a resident for talking too long with a patient when there were so many others to see. 'Save lives first, answer questions later, ' he said. Patients and families acknowledged the truth in that statement. The surgeons were so busy jetting through the night to retrieve organs, then standing on their feet in the operating room to transplant them, then rounding to make certain their patients' medications were effective, that they couldn't really afford to invest time or energy in conversation. Still, understanding why the transplant team members were often so insensitive did not eradicate patients' hurt and resentment. I remember one person commenting with great bitterness, 'My doctor knows what my liver looks like, but not my face.'"

About the Author:

LEE GUTKIND is the founder and editor of Creative Nonfiction. He teaches in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Pittsburgh and is a prolific author whose diverse works include Forever Fat: Essays by the Godfather; The Best Seat in Baseball, but You Have to Stand: The Game as Umpires See It; Many Sleepless Nights: The World of Organ Transplantation; and Stuck in Time: The Tragedy of Childhood Mental Illness. He has edited many collections, including A View from the Divide: Creative Nonfiction on Health and Science.

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