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Emergency room diary
This looks like a 1972 book club edition.
- GenresNonfiction
193 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1972
About the author
Theodore Isaac Rubin
61 books34 followersTheodore Isaac Rubin, M.D., has served as president of the American Institute of Psychoanalysis and is the author of thirty books, including The Angry Book, Lisa and David, Jordi, The Winner's Notebook, and Lisa and David Today. His books have been translated all over the world. He lives and practices psychiatry in New York City.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 29, 2011
This book is a bit dated, as it was written by a physician who did his internship in the post-WWII era (early 1960s I believe), so a lot of the current medical treatments hadn't even been imagined yet. That said, it's interesting to look back and reflect on how far we have come.
One issue I had with the book that I didn't realize was that Rubin provides a list of characters at the end of the book, which would have proven helpful to keep doctors and their ranks straight over the course of his 4 month diary. There is also a glossary, a nice touch because words and acronyms mean different things now than they did then, and many of the drugs mentioned have been replaced many times by the latest and greatest innovation.
Rubin truly writes this as a diary, reflecting on his patients, bringing in wisdom from authors and physicians whom he respects, and also includes some notes on his own battles, ranging from trying to maintain a healthy weight to missing out on a $1,000 bonus because he wasn't trained in the U.S. There are no dates or times, so some entries seem to occur within a few hours of the last while others come days later.
The patient stories are the best part of the book and do make the shortcomings worthwhile. In an ER today, doctors don't get much opportunity to follow their patients once they leave the department, but back then, apparently they kept 'hopeless cases' in the ER until they expired, in order not to take up a necessary inpatient bed. The story of one such patient, a man referred to as 'The Sailor', unfolds over the course of the book and helps to provide a little bit of chronology. Most patient cases though, are summarized in one entry as most patients were seen just briefly by Rubin and moved on, whether retuning home, going to one of the wards, or dying in the ER before the docs had a chance to save them.
All in all, a good early book about the life of an ER doctor
One issue I had with the book that I didn't realize was that Rubin provides a list of characters at the end of the book, which would have proven helpful to keep doctors and their ranks straight over the course of his 4 month diary. There is also a glossary, a nice touch because words and acronyms mean different things now than they did then, and many of the drugs mentioned have been replaced many times by the latest and greatest innovation.
Rubin truly writes this as a diary, reflecting on his patients, bringing in wisdom from authors and physicians whom he respects, and also includes some notes on his own battles, ranging from trying to maintain a healthy weight to missing out on a $1,000 bonus because he wasn't trained in the U.S. There are no dates or times, so some entries seem to occur within a few hours of the last while others come days later.
The patient stories are the best part of the book and do make the shortcomings worthwhile. In an ER today, doctors don't get much opportunity to follow their patients once they leave the department, but back then, apparently they kept 'hopeless cases' in the ER until they expired, in order not to take up a necessary inpatient bed. The story of one such patient, a man referred to as 'The Sailor', unfolds over the course of the book and helps to provide a little bit of chronology. Most patient cases though, are summarized in one entry as most patients were seen just briefly by Rubin and moved on, whether retuning home, going to one of the wards, or dying in the ER before the docs had a chance to save them.
All in all, a good early book about the life of an ER doctor
Displaying 1 of 1 review