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Title: Second Opinions: Stories of Intuition and Choice in the Changing World of Medicine by Jerome, M.D. Groopman ISBN: 0-14-029862-2 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 27 February, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.25 (12 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Engrossing medical stories
Comment: Yes, Dr. Groopman does have a rather elevated opinion of himself, and yes, this book serves admirably as self-promotion, but, so what? Dr. Groopman's inability to assume a socially correct humility may be annoying and distracting to some, but I found it amusing and almost endearing. He wants so much to please and be that delight of mothers everywhere, "my son, the doctor," that it is impossible for him to show himself in an unflattering light. Even when he volunteers his mistakes, one has the sense that he is a larger person for having done so!
Well, I can think of worse styles, and anyway, what is important about this book is not the author's self-perception, but the light he sheds on the practice of medicine for the reader, and that light is considerable. He has a fine gift for telling a story and he writes in a clear and vivid manner that is easy to read, and we are thoroughly engrossed . Furthermore, the moral of most of the very interesting stories he presents here from his practice, is that the physician's first responsibility is to the patient, not to his ego, not to his career, not to the HMOs, and not even to his fellow physicians.
I was particularly impressed with Dr. Groopman's ability to criticize those physicians who let their egos and their pride come before their patients. He wasn't afraid to show how doctors who do not put the welfare of their patients first can cause pain and suffering and even death. Most doctors would never come close to being as critical of their peers as Groopman is here. I don't know whether he has an inordinate amount of courage, or a particularly thick skin, but I do know that many doctors will not be pleased with what he has revealed in these pages about the competence of some physicians, and he will pay a price for that.
Also impressive was Dr. Groopman's unflinching willingness to share with the reader not just his clinical experience, but his personal experience as well. In the first chapter, "Our Firstborn Son," he and his wife, who is also a doctor, become worried parents who take their sick son to the emergency room of a hospital, feeling as vulnerable and helpless as any other parents would, especially when they become concerned that the doctor on call is misdiagnosing their son's illness. In a later chapter he shares the story of his Grandfather Max who suffered from Alzheimer's disease in a way that made him uncontrollably violent. Most significant, though, is the story he tells about himself in the prologue. It is disarming in the sense that he too is guilty of pride and suffers most painfully for it. Once a marathon runner, he ends up crippled for a year, and to this day has a chronic debility that limits his mobility, all because he thought he knew better than the doctors who were treating him. It was a great and painful lesson for a young physician, the kind of lesson that molds us to better appreciate our limits and to empathize with the suffering of others, the kind of lesson that shapes a great physician.
So, I don't believe Dr. Groopman is ensconced in any ivory tower. He is a physician that is intimately involved in the welfare of his patients (and in his research), a man who understands the suffering patients go through first hand, and is sympathetic and, most important, knowledgeable and skillful. He is also a very good writer. I would be delighted to be so lucky as to have Dr. Groopman as my personal physician.
Rating: 5
Summary: Dr. Gideon, I presume
Comment: I've enjoyed Dr. Groopman's essays in the New Yorker and so was happy to learn about this book, which I found to be a highly compelling and instructive read. Groopman is no Tolstoy, but he writes with precision, clarity, compassion and great understanding about people struggling for their lives, usually against cancer, and the peculiarly intimate role a good doctor plays in that struggle.
Of course, one of the unifying threads of the book is also the potentially life-threatening role a bad doctor can play in that struggle -- thus the need for second opinions and the difficulty many patients have in demanding them. Groopman is usually the good doctor here, saving his patients from the misguided diagnoses of others. But he doesn't entirely spare himself his sins. He forcefully highlights the way a doctor's inexperience, fatigue, ego, or momentary inattentiveness can have potentially fatal consequences. His deep experience as both clinician and researcher give the stories real authority.
What really struck me, though, was how such a collection of case studies is like a fictional short story collection only more satisfying for the fact that these are classic beginning, middle and end stories that are in fact true. As important, Groopman begins with one of his own family's stories, which effectively draws you in to his own life. That's important because this is ultimately a portrait of the kind of super smart and caring physician we'd all like to have when facing a crisis.
Gideon's Crossing owes a lot to this book, having already built a couple of episodes around case studies found here. The ultimate compliment, I guess, is that Groopman has created a vision powerful enough to deserve Andre Braugher.
Rating: 5
Summary: Beautifully written
Comment: I'm somewhat amazed by the comments of the other reader reviewers (though less so by the self-identified physician, who seems to me to be suffering from sour grapes more than anything else in referring to Groopman's "ivory tower"). I found this books to be gripping and thought-provoking--as moving in its way as Tolstoy's "Death of Ivan Ilyich" or Chekhov's "Ward Six," two other classics of doctor-patient relationships). Groopman writes with passion, precision, and elegance. Only incidental to me was his powerful rhetorical point--urging all of us to be as proactive as he in taking active, questioning roles in our own health. Perhaps the physician-reviewer is put off by the fact that Groopman does not seem to subscribe to the "omerta" of too many in the medical profession, but places the patient first, even though he is a committed researcher. I also recommend Groopman's earlier book, "The Measure of Our Days" and the edited volume, "AIDS Doctors: An Oral History," which gives voice to Groopman and many other brave warriors of the hospitals.
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Title: The Anatomy of Hope : How People Prevail in the Face of Illness by JEROME GROOPMAN ISBN: 0375506381 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 23 December, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Measure of Our Days: A Spiritual Exploration of Illness by Jerome Groopman ISBN: 014026972X Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: October, 1998 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande ISBN: 0312421702 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Measure of Our Days: New Beginnings at Life's End by Jerome Groopman ISBN: 0670875708 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: October, 1997 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: A Life in Medicine: A Literary Anthology by Robert Coles, Randy Testa, Joseph D'Donnell ISBN: 1565847296 Publisher: New Press Pub. Date: June, 2002 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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