Three quite separate books, united by the one card.The Patient by Australian surgeon Mohamed Khadra is a fictional account of one man's journey through the dysfunctional health system. For anyone who thinks Australia's public system is not in need of radical overhaul, this is the book to read. So many empires and so much vested interest with not enough attention to humanity, kindness and commonsense.
The chapters where Khadra wrote from his own perspective had the most resonance with me, reminding me of many of my colleagues and my undergraduate teachers:
I performed the biopsies, removed the scope and examined his pelvis internally. I felt a hard craggy mass that was the cancer in his bladder. It was obviously aggressive. What a tragedy I thought.The Vicar's Wife's Cook Book is clever, but ever so slightly misleading. She was once a Vicar's wife but her husband is now a conference director. Still the book and the mostly simple recipes are dotted with references to the Vicar.
By the time I had got to my car, I had forgotten all about Jonathon. Surgeons cannot store the suffering of their patients. They need to have the ability to let go. The Hindus call it swaha, a Sanskrit word that implies breathing out the trouble, freeing oneself of the pain. . .
Market Vegetarian by Ross Dobson, is the book I would recommend and have added to my wish list. Beautifully illustrated, the recipes are all accessible and achievable and yet the food is stylish and modern in conception and appearance.
2 comments:
I had a friend who recently left the nursing industry as it was excatly the way you described the state of affairs of health in Australia.
It became so difficult for him to function within in it, he had hit the bottle hard and realised it was either his own health or quit. Very sad.
I hope you can keep at it Ed. As much as our health system sucks, we seem to have quite a few like yourself who see its faults yet try to be of worth within it. I know, I have two doctors who fall into that category, and I am so grateful for both of them.
Cheers
j
Jeremy,
The book for all disenchanted health professions is Atul Gawande's book - Better.
It is all about how to improve systems and patient care and is quite inspiring and the perfect antidote for those in doubt.
One particular line has always stuck in my mind - "When you make an effort, you find sometimes you are not the only one willing to do so"
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