Code five

by Frank G. Slaughter

This book is the hard cover book club edition. c 1971

249 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Frank Gill Slaughter , pen-name Frank G. Slaughter, pseudonym C.V. Terry, was an American novelist and physician whose books sold more than 60 million copies. His novels drew on his own experience as a doctor and his interest in history and the Bible. Through his novels, he often introduced readers to new findings in medical research and new medical technologies.

Slaughter was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Stephen Lucious Slaughter and Sarah "Sallie" Nicholson Gill. When he was about five years old, his family moved to a farm near Berea, North Carolina, which is west of Oxford, North Carolina. He earned a bachelor's degree from Trinity College (now Duke University) at 17 and went to medical school at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. He began writing fiction in 1935 while a physician at Riverside Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida.

Books by Slaughter include The Purple Quest, Surgeon, U.S.A., Epidemic! , Tomorrow's Miracle and The Scarlet Cord. Slaughter died May 17, 2001 in Jacksonville, Florida.

Reviews

[Pamela Mclaren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dr. Jud Tyler, a doctor wounded in service in Vietnam, comes to St. Luke's Hospital at the behest of his friend Rev. Charles "Chuck" Rogers, chaplain for the hospital.

Tyler, who served at the hospital before joining the military, has been urged to join the hospital as its director of emergency services, but he is conflicted. His injuries — a shapnel would to the skull — have left him with weakness in him right-hand limbs and in his mind, little chance to ever be a surgeon again.

But his background and his quick thinking are what is needed when he finds that St. Luke's needs a great deal of help, more than he thinks he can give. He says himself that the hospital appears to be dying with few licensed, respected doctors on staff, an overwhelmed emergency room and a system that is choking off the income stream for the facility. Still, Tyler finds out that there are things he can do: shortly after entering the hospital, he saves the life of a mill worker whose lungs are permanently scared by cotton dust; he explores the mysterious symptoms of a four-year-old child and discovers that he is suffering from lead poisoning; and he brings order to the chaos overcoming the hospital.

Tyler doesn't give himself a chance to consider what he is opening up for himself.

This is a tense personal and societal drama. There's a lot of levels and all are firing as the story comes towards conclusion. Yes, it can be argued that everything seems to be crammed into a week, where in reality it would have taken months for all of these incidents to come together, the romance is a little too simple and parts of this story are a little too complicated in medical terminology for some readers and finally, the book concludes like a big, gift-wrapped present — not very real.

But I still liked it. I was struck by a man battling not only the limitations of his body, as well as the corruption and unjustice of the leaders of the city, business and medical communities toward the poor and minorities. I was barely a teen when this book was published and only just beginning to understand the battle for civil rights, let alone notice that occupational safety was just in its infancy. Now that I read this book, I am surprised at how far we have gone since this time period — and realize that there are still so much further we have to go. This book made me think about it and feel for those stuck in the grip of these issues. That makes it a good read.

[Robert A · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was more of a equality in healthcare book and about injustices in medicine. But very little medical heroics or life in the ER. Mainly medical managerial and the fight for the poor. Not a page turner. Slow moving.

[Sergio · Rating 2 out of 5]

Più belli e godibili i primi romanzi di Frank Slaughter, quelli degli anni '50 a sfondo storico: questo thriller di ambiente medico è mediocre

[Doreen]

I r

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book at the same time I was reading another medical book, and the plots were very similar, though this book was set decades before the other. Dr. Jud Taylor returns to his hometown to accept a job at a hospital, as he is unlikely to find a job elsewhere after being critically injured while serving as a surgeon in the military. He finds that things have changed in the years he has been away, with a new hospital open nearby, leaving St Luke's to serve only the poor population, many of whom have no insurance and work in the nearby factories, and doing so mainly with FMGs, foreign medical graduates, doctors trained overseas at programs of a lesser quality than provided by American medical schools. Taylor befriended a military chaplain during his time in the service, bonding over their shared hometown, and the chaplain has high hopes that St Luke's can be revitalized and turned into a top-rate medical center for its community, the first step to that being the hiring of Taylor, despite his injury and inability to operate at the moment.
The book has many subplots, all quite intriguing. Young, handsome Taylor finds himself attracted to two women quite early on in the book, one a no-nonsense nurse who runs the St. Luke's ER with an iron fist, the other being the local cotton mill owner's daughter whose broken arm Taylor cared for before he went overseas and shows up again with another broken arm on his first day back. In addition to fixing pretty girls' broken arms, Jud also treats children sickened by their living conditions and factory workers suffering job-related ills. In order to go after the source of these problems though, Taylor risks angering the "old boys' network" that includes ghetto slumlords, the aforementioned cotton mill owner, and even the head of St. Luke's.
The age of the book definitely shows, as I believe it is set during the Vietnam War era, but possibly as far back as the Korean War. Civil rights, occupational safety, and triage are all concepts in their infancy, so I would see this book turning out very differently if it happened today. I didn't particularly care for the ending either, it seemed like Slaughter just wanted to tie everything up, so as to leave open the possibility of a continuation of Dr. Taylor's story but not leave readers hanging if there was no sequel.

[J. Ewbank · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good Frank G. Slaughter book, and his books can be very good. The story is heartwarming and interesting as well as challenging. The characters are sketched out so you know them. A good read for many.

J. Robert Ewbank author "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the Isms" "Wesley's Wars" and "To Whom It May Concern"

[Dawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story was a little dated, but not as much as you might think. Sadly, actually. It was a good story, not too full of medical jargon. It was pretty badly copy-edited though, which annoyed me. Other than that, a good, quick read.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this for the 2015 challenge, book your Mother loves. This was one of her favorite authors.

[Stanley Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though I found the plot confusing, Chapter structure was addicting enough that I finished in 3 hours.

[Faye Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frank G. Slaughter is one of my favorite authors. This book does not disappoint. In fact, it was hard to put it down,

[Belle Meade School]

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