Go an extra mile: The adventures and reflections of a flying doctor

by Michael Wood

...gives many vivid and dramatic glimpses of his adventures as a doctor and a pilot, while his reflections give a hint of the philosophy which lies at the heart of his achievment...

Genres: Africa

160 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1978

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads' database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Dr. Michael Wood, co-founder of Kenya's Flying Doctor Service, brings a beautiful and troubled land into sharp focus in this eloquently written memoir of 40 years in Africa.

Reviews

[gltgw · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book paints a vivid picture of the East Africa of Those Days, from an only-just-post-colonial period & from the perspective of what would traditionally have been the coloniser, a white male- and a surgeon, stereotypical bastion of the God complex. And although these issues are addressed (especially in the epilogue where he has suggestions but no easy solutions) this is more a book on his life, with close-shaves in the air (and landing- hard to come down with a rhino on the landing strip!), medical cases (meeting the man he'd saved from paralysis 23 years later, using a tyre lever from the Land-Rover to reduce a dislocation, sciatic nerve recovery of the Maasai warrior) as well as lots of just life (for example, his participation in what sounded like a truly insane 3-day car race through literal rivers in a place where 10 inches of rain falls overnight and wash away sections of tarmac road).

I think it could probably have benefited from a stricter editor, as often a chapter consisted of a series of (still interesting) stories that were only nominally related or not at all (although that did also contribute to the relaxed feel of the book, as if you were at a dinner with someone who had lived a more interesting life than most). Yet overall it was a pleasantly easy read & an insight into a truly different (& to some extent, lost) way of life.

[Clivemichael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Positive and uplifting, an engaging platform for his humble, honest and articulate opinions. An exciting (in places) and very personal narrative, which as mentioned on the inner cover flyleaf states" Deliberately selective.... with an " illuminating Foreward by Laurens Van Der Post"

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing may not be great, but this book will be of interest to those who have been involved with medical care in east Africa. After training as a surgeon in England, Michael Wood moved with his family in 1946 to Kenya. He spent the rest of his life living and working as a physician in Kenya and Tanzania until his death in the 1980s. He learned to fly in Kenya and was a founder of the Flying Doctor Service, an organization that still provides medical care to people living in isolated areas of east Africa.

[Iskandar]

buku tulisan pengasas Flying Doctor Service di Afrika Timur.Wajib dibaca bagi sesiapa yang ingin menceburi bidang "sektor ketiga" (non-profit).