Medical Humanities: Personal Experiences

...Youn lay strapped in an oral surgeon's chair as he broke his jaw, then reset it and wired it shut for six weeks. Ironically, it was this brutal makeover that led him to his life's calling -- and the four years of angst, flubs, triumphs, non-stop studying and intermittent heavy drinking that eventually earned him an M.D. Thanks to a small circle of close friends and an obsessive drive to overachieve, Youn transformed from a shy, skinny, awkward nerd with no confidence and no clue into a renowned and successful plastic surgeon. In Stitches is a heartfelt, candid, and laugh-out-loud memoir of one man's bumpy road to becoming a doctor and learning to be comfortable in his own skin.

A wise and moving memoir of a young doctors journey from health to illness and back again.... At the time, Hepatitis C was incurable and rife with stigma, and the last thing Dr. Kaplan expected to be dealing with... She enrolled as a subject in medical studies on the disease, pushed herself through long days at work, and struggled to keep her relationship with her family and friends exactly as it once was. Dr. Kaplan shares her unique perspective on the fascinating world of medicine.She works here at Temple Health Women's Care in Elkins Park.

The life of Camillo Golgi was an extraordinary intellectual adventure in three major fields of biology and medicine, namely neuroscience, emerging cell biology, and the new science of medical microbiology.

National Bestseller. None surpass Gawande in the ability to create a sense of immediacy, in his power to conjure the reality of the ward, the thrill of the moment-by-moment medical or surgical drama.

In 1995, Jean-Dominique Bauby was the editor-in-chief of French Elle, the father of two young children, a 44-year-old man known and loved for his wit, his style, and his impassioned approach to life. By the end of the year he was also the victim of a rare kind of stroke to the brainstem. After 20 days in a coma, Bauby awoke into a body which had all but stopped working: only his left eye functioned, allowing him to see and, by blinking it, to make clear that his mind was unimpaired.

A riveting exploration of the most difficult and important part of what doctors do, by Yale School of Medicine physician Dr. Lisa Sanders, author of the monthly New York Times Magazine column "Diagnosis," the inspiration for the hit Fox TV series House, M.D. "The experience of being ill can be like waking up in a foreign country. Life, as you formerly knew it, is on hold while you travel through this other world as unknown as it is unexpected."