Doctors

It took me almost a month to complete the 700 pages of "Doctors" by Eric Sehgal. It was nice to have something to read whenever i had a couple of minutes each day.

The doctors are aptly called the "wounded healers", how most confront their fears and are sometimes confounded. I have often thought of how they cope with all the cases of despair in the hospital. I don't know if its still true in today's age but the welcoming lecture by Dean Courtney Holmes to the new med students was that "even the most brilliant doctors had such woefully inadequate knowledge of the ills that beset the human body that they possessed an empirical cure for only twenty-six of them. Were they really about to slave for atleast another five yeats to enter a profession that was ninety-eight percent guesswork?"

The story revolves around the Harvard medical class of 1962 with Barney Livingston, Laura Castellano, Bennett Landsman, Seth Lazarus, Hank Dwyer, Peter Wyman, Grete Anderson, and Lance Mortimer among others. From the novel, we get to know that doctors have higher suicide and drug addiction rates than the rest due to the rigorous demands. That many medical students give up their lives, as they are unable to cope with the intense pressure. That doctors goof up and of the politics even in this profession. Mercy killing and doctor's ethics also is touched upon, not lightly though.

It is also a story of friendship, of platonic love and of infidelity. A line i liked : "One complete human being deserves another complete human being. Love isn't a part time job."

Also liked Herschel Landsmann's funeral reading of a brief passage from the "Sayings of the Fathers" - "When a man dies, neither gold nor silver accompany him - only righteousness and good deeds. For it is said, when you walk it shall lead you; when you lie down, it shall watch over you; and when you wake, it shall speak with you.

On the last page - "Medicine is an eternal quest for reasons - causes that explain effects. Science cannot comprehend a miracle."

I liked it more because it mentions some familiar places - Lourdes,San Francisco, Stanford University, Palo Alto, El Camino Real and the Union Square. Not a fan of the death camps, but even the Nazi atrocities and the actions of the US Army are described in the novel.

Now, guess what?

I have been initiated to "The Scapegoat" by Daphne du Maurier. Someone special even read to me the Chapter 1 to make sure that i read on... yeah its placed within hand's reach and i think i'll pick it up... as soon as i see the next opportunity to read.