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EVERY PATIENT TELLS A STORY

Name: EVERY PATIENT TELLS A STORY
Author: Lisa Sanders
ISBN: 978-0-7679-2246-3

MEDICAL MYSTERIES AND THE ART OF DIAGNOSIS

by Lisa Sanders ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 6, 2009

Fans of Jerome Groopman and Atul Gawande will appreciate this first collection by another astute observer of the medical...

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A doctor’s insightful reflections on the disconnect between how physicians should practice and how they actually practice.

Although she is a consulting producer for the TV show House, Sanders (Medicine/Yale Univ. School of Medicine) admits that movie and TV doctors make diagnoses seemingly by magic or by uncovering a single overlooked clue. Real doctors listen carefully to patients and examine them, a procedure ignored in fiction but also by many of the current generation of doctors who often prefer tests and advanced technology. “Ultimately,” she writes, “the primary work of doctors is to treat pain and relieve suffering.” Sanders tells the story of one patient who was feverish and clearly suffering from a severe infection, yet massive intravenous antibiotics weren’t helping. A doctor noticed that one of the patient’s toes looked gangrenous. When it was amputated, the infection vanished. Patients and doctors yearn intensely for a diagnosis—so intensely, in fact, that they may find one that doesn’t actually exist. Writes Sanders: “Translating the big, various, complicated, contradictory story of the human being who is sick, into the spare, stripped down, skeletal language of the patient in the bed, and then making that narrative reveal its conclusion—that is the essence of diagnosis.” The author also delves into Lyme disease, a tick-born infection that certainly exists but has given rise to a controversial movement in which a small group of patients suffering fatigue, pains, fever and general misery see a small group of doctors who diagnose a chronic Lyme infection that may require a lifetime of treatment. Studies cast doubt on the existence of this ailment, but both patients and doctors dismiss them, as they dismissed past skepticism of diseases such as the Epstein-Barr virus.

Fans of Jerome Groopman and Atul Gawande will appreciate this first collection by another astute observer of the medical profession.

Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2009

ISBN: 978-0-7679-2246-3

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Broadway

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2009

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.