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Every Patient Tells a Story: Medical Mysteries and the Art of Diagnosis

Lisa Sanders

3.93 · Rating details · 5,180 Ratings · 465 Reviews

A riveting exploration of the most difficult and important part of what doctors do, by Yale School of Medicine physician Dr. Lisa Sanders, author of the monthly New York Times Magazine column "Diagnosis," the inspiration for the hit Fox TV series House, M.D.

The experience of being ill can be like waking up in a foreign country. Life, as you formerly knew it, is on hold whi A riveting exploration of the most difficult and important part of what doctors do, by Yale School of Medicine physician Dr. Lisa Sanders, author of the monthly New York Times Magazine column "Diagnosis," the inspiration for the hit Fox TV series House, M.D.

The experience of being ill can be like waking up in a foreign country. Life, as you formerly knew it, is on hold while you travel through this other world as unknown as it is unexpected. When I see patients in the hospital or in my office who are suddenly, surprisingly ill, what they really want to know is, ‘What is wrong with me?’ They want a road map that will help them manage their new surroundings. The ability to give this unnerving and unfamiliar place a name, to know it–on some level–restores a measure of control, independent of whether or not that diagnosis comes attached to a cure. Because, even today, a diagnosis is frequently all a good doctor has to offer.

A healthy young man suddenly loses his memory–making him unable to remember the events of each passing hour. Two patients diagnosed with Lyme disease improve after antibiotic treatment–only to have their symptoms mysteriously return. A young woman lies dying in the ICU–bleeding, jaundiced, incoherent–and none of her doctors know what is killing her. In Every Patient Tells a Story, Dr. Lisa Sanders takes us bedside to witness the process of solving these and other diagnostic dilemmas, providing a firsthand account of the expertise and intuition that lead a doctor to make the right diagnosis.

Never in human history have doctors had the knowledge, the tools, and the skills that they have today to diagnose illness and disease. And yet mistakes are made, diagnoses missed, symptoms or tests misunderstood. In this high-tech world of modern medicine, Sanders shows us that knowledge, while essential, is not sufficient to unravel the complexities of illness. She presents an unflinching look inside the detective story that marks nearly every illness–the diagnosis–revealing the combination of uncertainty and intrigue that doctors face when confronting patients who are sick or dying. Through dramatic stories of patients with baffling symptoms, Sanders portrays the absolute necessity and surprising difficulties of getting the patient’s story, the challenges of the physical exam, the pitfalls of doctor-to-doctor communication, the vagaries of tests, and the near calamity of diagnostic errors. In Every Patient Tells a Story, Dr. Sanders chronicles the real-life drama of doctors solving these difficult medical mysteries that not only illustrate the art and science of diagnosis, but often save the patients’ lives. ...more

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Kindle Edition, 304 pages

Published July 31st 2009 by Harmony (first published 2009)

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Jun 20, 2012 Reese rated it it was ok

I didn't think it was possible for a book about medical problems to bore me. I now know that it's possible. Yep, Every Patient Tells a Story managed to bore me. Boredom may not be an illness, but in this review, equating the two seems appropriate. I'm not starting with a potpourri of baffling symptoms and trying to arrive at a diagnosis. I have the diagnosis: boredom -- so my task is to identify the causes.

Dr. Lisa Sanders' work reminds me of a medical file in that it's a disorganized collectio ...more

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May 05, 2010 Kristen Nace rated it really liked it

As a medical lab tech, this book was fascinating to me. I spend my weekends working in the local hospital running diagnostic tests of all kinds. Often, I will come to know a patient ( eventhough I never see their face) through their lab resutls. I will make and view a slide of their CBC and count their different white cells. i will take note of their panic potassiums and calciums, their low hemoglobin, etc. and call these results to an er doctor and will often hear an "A-HA!" from the doctor as ...more

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May 17, 2018 Andy rated it liked it · review of another edition

If you like the author's column in the New York Times Magazine, you will like this book. It features well-written stories of so-called "medical mysteries." My problem is this frame of the "mystery" which makes it seem like these are very tough diagnoses and so the patients are just unlucky to have these weird diseases.

Most of the time, the stories reveal diagnoses that could have been made much earlier, more safely and more cheaply if only the doctor had done something basic, like look at the c ...more

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Jul 25, 2010 Angela rated it it was ok

Shelves: non-ficiton

I was a little disappointed in this book. The author is touted writes a column that gave rise to House MD so I expected lots of interesting case histories and weird maladies! Instead the book is a lot about how diagnosis is done and a boring eulogy for what the author describes as the death of the physical exam and the lack of training in basics for doctors. For those interested in the case history type thing I recommend instead Oliver Sachs (Awakening) and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat ...more

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Sep 25, 2015 মাশুদুল হক rated it really liked it

অসাধারণ বই, মেডিসিনে যদি কযারিয়ার করি তাহলে সেই পথ বেছে নেয়াতে এ বইয়ের একটা ভূমিকা থাকবে!
ডায়াগনসিস একটা আরট সেটা মেডিসিনে সবত:সিদধ কথা। যে ডাকতার ভাল ডায়াগনসিস করেন তিনি যেন কোনান ডয়েলের শারলক হোমসের মতই, তাই কঠিন পরায় পরতযেকটা ডায়াগনসিস এক একটা গলপের মত, যেকোন ডিটেকটিভ গলপকে হার মানানোর মতই সেসব গলপের টযুইসট।
এটা যারা জনপরিয় মেডিকেল টিভি সিরিজ House, MD দেখেছে তারা সবাই জানে। ঘটনাকরমে এ বইয়ের লেখিকাও সেই সিরিজের একজন পরামরশদাতা- তাই সবভাবতই সে ধরনের বেশ কিছু ঘটনা এখানে আছে। তবে সিরিজের মত ঘটনাব অসাধারণ বই, মেডিসিনে যদি ক্যারিয়ার করি তাহলে সেই পথ বেছে নেয়াতে এ বইয়ের একটা ভূমিকা থাকবে!
ডায়াগনসিস একটা আর্ট সেটা মেডিসিনে স্বত:সিদ্ধ কথা। যে ডাক্তার ভাল ডায়াগনসিস করেন তিনি যেন কোনান ডয়েলের শার্লক হোমসের মতই, তাই কঠিন প্রায় প্রত্যেকটা ডায়াগনসিস এক একটা গল্পের মত, যেকোন ডিটেকটিভ গল্পকে হার মানানোর মতই সেসব গল্পের ট্যুইস্ট।
এটা যারা জনপ্রিয় মেডিকেল টিভি সিরিজ House, MD দেখেছে তারা সবাই জানে। ঘটনাক্রমে এ বইয়ের লেখিকাও সেই সিরিজের একজন পরামর্শদাতা- তাই স্বভাবতই সে ধরনের বেশ কিছু ঘটনা এখানে আছে। তবে সিরিজের মত ঘটনাবহুল নয় এর প্রতিটা চ্যাপ্টার। বরঞ্চ কিছু কিছু জায়গায় ছোটখাট ব্যাপার নিয়ে দীর্ঘ আলোচনা আছে, এটা কারো কারো বিরক্ত লাগতে পারে, তবে আমার কাছে দারুণ উপভোগ্য মনে হয়েছে।
নন মেডিকেল কারো পড়তে সমস্যা হবে না, কেননা তাদের কথা মাথায় রেখেই ভাষা ঠিক করা হয়েছে। আর মেডিকেল পারসনদের জন্য এটা অসাধারণ ব্রেন স্টর্মিং, ইগনোর করার মত বিষয়গুলো এত ডিটেইলস আলোচনা করা হয়েছে যে অনেক কিছুরই নতুন করে গুরুত্ব বুঝেছি।

...more

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Jan 14, 2018 Jeanette rated it liked it · review of another edition

This title is far more a memoir than it is a book that is directly focused on the subject matter of the title. And it also does not follow so much of her own autobiography path for becoming a medical doctor in any linear progressive order of time or experience level so you don't get that as a "whole" either. Instead it skips. And jumps to various chapter headings which almost randomly center on different aspects or various instruments of the patient physical examination by the medical doctor.

The This title is far more a memoir than it is a book that is directly focused on the subject matter of the title. And it also does not follow so much of her own autobiography path for becoming a medical doctor in any linear progressive order of time or experience level so you don't get that as a "whole" either. Instead it skips. And jumps to various chapter headings which almost randomly center on different aspects or various instruments of the patient physical examination by the medical doctor.

These books usually mesmerize me. Although I read every word and appreciated many of her witnessed misdiagnosis or "troubled/ very ill and yet no answer for successful treatment" patients- I felt after about 1/2 the book that the verbiage of medical historic discoveries founders for techniques and equipment invention, those past century tales and myriads or other non-title related tangents- they all got in the way.

It's good instruction for those who know little about medicine as a diagnosis skill set and also want to know more about a base physical examination. The one a medical doctor should be doing upon first patient arrival for a well visit or for a problem to report episode.

These physical examinations of the patient (even on hospital check in) are not taught as they once were. Nor are all doctors depending on the physical exam to the extent that they did a mere few decades ago. Not only because of lab testing, but because of digital diagnosing.

Overall, the writing style became just too tangent to piece out the essence of the connection to those physical examination skills. The listening, the feeling of touch response, the communication and the related context to the exact period of times involved. It is like a story, in some ways. But far more complex than just a story. You have to hear the silences and also tread into paths that don't reveal signs which warn or point to the features for the information that you don't know that you don't know.

The reading became random memoir and quite tedious at points, as it wandered away from the subject of the diagnosis art. She entered the "tracking" and cognition skill testing too. Which I worked within for a few years, so I should have found it extremely interesting. But it seemed long-winded side explanations in the way she gets "around" the "invisible gorilla" test, for instance. Her writing became tedious, not exciting- as it could have been for such a subject. NOT seeing something that is quite there.

There was a small omission too, I think. I wanted to hear more about how doctors listen as much as what they inquire about "the story". She flirted with that about 3 times but never really delved into selective hearing as she did the "seeing".

She's probably an excellent doctor. Her memory and ability to sense emotive affect and side bars seem superior. ...more

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Nov 07, 2017 Carissa rated it really liked it

Shelves: friend-recommendations, medical, memoir, non-fiction

Dead on with my experience as a complicated, chronic patient, but what makes it so good to me is that it’s from the perspective of doctors who admit the faults of medicine, the diagnostic process, the tendency to blow things off if there’s not something “normal” and initial, basic tests come back normal, the lack of desire to pursue things further, and the common problem of misdiagnosing a patient simply to give them a diagnosis (thinking they should know everything) to the detriment of the pati ...more

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Jan 22, 2012 Becca rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2011-2012

Oh my god this book was AMAZING. I am so grateful that Amy let me read this book. It might seem boring because it's a medical book but honestly it's not. This book is a bunch of stories about diagnosising people and how one tiny detail the others. One of the most memorable story that I read was about a girl who constantly smoked weed (marijuana) and got nausea from it. When the doctors found out it was the weed that made her feel this way they told the patient. To my surprise she got angry at th ...more

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Aug 19, 2012 Jellie Dawn rated it it was amazing

Shelves: books-read-in-2013, medicine, science, informative, life, humor, fiction

From the writer of the series House M.D, Dr. Lisa Sanders. Great read. Recommended for doctors and med students!

----
Update: August 7,2013

I got what I wanted and more. This book doesn't only give information but wisdom and inspiration for every medical student who wants to forge a refreshing and exciting path for himself/herself in the medical arena. Truly a book for all (and not just medical students).

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Jul 21, 2018 Karnish Thakkar rated it it was ok

☯
Good things :

-Acknowledgment of amazing internist Faith Fitzgerald,Dr.Joseph bell the real inspiration of Sherlock holmes for arther conan doyle(so technically house m.d. medical series was inspired by Sherlock detective series which was inspired by dr bell medical man),Giovanni Battista the anatomy guy,rené theophylline hyacinth laennec the stetho guy.
-evolution of the definition of disease (symptoms~organ dysfunction ~&then add objective observations )
-importance of autopsy & physica ...more

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Nov 26, 2014 Risa rated it it was ok

As a medical scientist, and someone just generally into medical anything, this book seemed like an obvious choice. The "Every Patient Tells a Story" sounds like House, MD in a book format. SIGN ME UP! Unfortunately, uh, there are hardly any patient stories. This is one long book on the benefits of the physical exam. Sure the author throw us a bone here and there, in the form of a very brief patient case, then followed by yet another 50 pages about the physical exam and 10 more pages full of stat ...more

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Mar 10, 2018 Richard rated it really liked it

This book may not be what you expect it to be. As you can see by the other reviews, many readers were disappointed because it did not meet their exceptions. Perhaps it needs a different title such as "Putting Human Contact Back into Medical Practice" or "Doctors and Patients are not Machines".

I love reading the "Vital Signs" section of Discover magazine and find the cases in the TV show "House" (Sanders is the medical consultant) fascinating. However, this book is not a simple case by case study ...more

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Jun 19, 2017 Evalina rated it it was amazing

Shelves: medical, need-to-add-to-my-library, non-fiction

Sanders has a very clear and interesting tone to her writings. As she takes you through the diagnosis' that have perplexed doctors, she is able to write in such a way that causes the reader to experience the mental processes that go on in the mind of a doctor. This was an exciting and interesting read for me. I look forward to reading her other works.

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Mar 29, 2017 Allie rated it really liked it

Thought provoking and from a physician's perspective. This book has aspects of it that help encourage patients to ask more questions and look for answers with their provider. We need more books that inspire patients to probe further than the initial diagnosis.

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Jul 26, 2017 Mbgirl rated it liked it

Stick to medicine, Dr Sanders!! Be an excellent diagnostician and don't forget the priceless skill of a proper fiZ exam

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Jul 24, 2017 Marilyn F rated it liked it

Maybe a little over 3, but would have liked more of the solving of the medical mysteries and not quite so much waxing on what is right/wrong with the medical profession and its practice in the U.S.

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Mar 25, 2018 Karen added it · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, dnf

Not bad, byt not quite what I was expecting and it's just not holding my attention so I'm moving on.

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Mar 07, 2018 Aakash Verma rated it liked it

I enjoyed this book, it reads as a memoir but I feel that the desire to reinforce time after time the importance of a physical exam as an important or deciding factor was overdone. I liked the delivery of the stories and got most of the cases correct, the cases could have been more challenging. If the author ever wrote a second edition, I would give it a read.

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Apr 08, 2018 Nima Morgan rated it it was amazing

A very fascinating read, great for the layman and the medical community.

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May 09, 2017 Mary added it

This was incredibly fascinating.

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Apr 22, 2018 Nyan Lynn rated it really liked it

This book is fascinating. I am shocked to learn how doctors are not doing the basics of medicine: history taking and physical examination.

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Nov 03, 2009 Amy rated it really liked it

Shelves: met-or-know-the-author, nonfiction, home-library, i-heard-about-it-on-npr, made-me-look-something-up, taught-me-something

A while back, I heard that a Dr Lisa Sanders was the medical consultant for one of my favorite TV shows, House. The name rang a bell because it was the same as one of my best friends from high school -- only the last I'd heard, she was a producer at CBS. Through the miracle of FaceBook, after several decades we reconnected. My Lisa had indeed had a career change and now was a physician. Twists and turns of fate had led her to write a medical column for the New York Times, which in turn led to th A while back, I heard that a Dr Lisa Sanders was the medical consultant for one of my favorite TV shows, House. The name rang a bell because it was the same as one of my best friends from high school -- only the last I'd heard, she was a producer at CBS. Through the miracle of FaceBook, after several decades we reconnected. My Lisa had indeed had a career change and now was a physician. Twists and turns of fate had led her to write a medical column for the New York Times, which in turn led to the offer to be the consultant for a new show about a narcissistic, curmudgeonly, drug addicted, brilliant physician. As she tells the story, she figured she'd say yes, because the show surely wouldn't be around too long. I think this year is season 6. The show is a huge hit, due in large part to the talents of Hugh Laurie (one of my all-time favorite actors), who plays the unconventional Gregory House. Lisa came to town on her book tour and we spent a lovely day together. When she left, I had two great things: a reconnection with an old friend and a signed copy of Every Patient Tells a Story: Medical Mysteries and the Art of Diagnosis.

The Medical Mystery bits were definitely my favorites. I am a nurse, and have seen far too much in my 29 years of practice to be surprised by anything that happens in health care. Lisa's investigation of diagnoses, where we came from, where we are and where we are heading was interesting, but I guess I'm a gossip at heart and wanted to get to the "juicy" bits: the case studies and how the mysteries were solved. All in all, the book was quite readable and informative (though I kept hearing her voice in my head as I read.) I wonder how it would be for someone non-medical, or for someone who is rather jaded on our current health care system. Lisa definitely conveys the angst of being suddenly and dramatically ill for the patient, and the problems faced and battled by physicians seeking to help them.

I do love that Lisa has met Hugh Laurie and pronounced him a terrific person. She gave him a copy of the book to read, and then gushed, "And he actually read it!" I love his blurb on the front cover:
“If you need to be reminded that there are still diseases that can’t be cured in an hour—including commercial breaks—then this book is for you. Fantastic stuff.” ...more

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Aug 16, 2009 Miles rated it really liked it

As a non-medical professional I did enjoy this book. The main emphasis was the declining use of the physical exam in favor of greater delendence on medical testing. The author gives several case examples of what can be missed when the physician is not spending the time to listen to the patient and to perfrom a careful physical. She cites quite a bit of reasearch supporting her contention but is clearly not dismissive of the value of medical testing in conjunction with the physical exam.

Because o ...more

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May 31, 2011 Hazellie rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

Lisa Sanders writes a weekly column about diagnostic stories and is also a technical advisor for the House TV series starring Hugh Laurie.

This is her first book and as the title clearly says, it’s about the art of diagnosing patients.

All the stories about diagnosing patients are very informative and interesting, and some cases are truly mysterious but very satisfyingly solved in the end.

Scarily enough, there are a few horrifying cases where misdiagnoses caused a lot of money, suffering, and in s ...more

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Oct 09, 2016 Stephen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Applying medical arts to healing is doubtless gratifying to skilled practitioners but the most engaging part of the exercise is diagnosis. There are too many moving parts, too many chemical reactions, and too many operating system errors to easily determine what's wrong in every case. Lisa Sanders, who teaches diagnostics at Yale University School of Medicine, writes a monthly column on diagnostics for the New York Times Magazine and serves as technical advisor to television's "House M.D.," writ ...more

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Jun 16, 2018 Rajmr64 Rajeev rated it really liked it

Lisa Sanders is a practicing physician in the United States and she is the adviser for the medical detective series, House M.D that plays on TV. The good doctor throws light on the highly abstract science called Medicine, and the pitfalls that doctors have to face whilst making diagnosis for the patients who confront them with their maladies. The book touched a chord in me basically because I had personally experienced quite a few of the dilemmas described in the book during the course of my cli Lisa Sanders is a practicing physician in the United States and she is the adviser for the medical detective series, House M.D that plays on TV. The good doctor throws light on the highly abstract science called Medicine, and the pitfalls that doctors have to face whilst making diagnosis for the patients who confront them with their maladies. The book touched a chord in me basically because I had personally experienced quite a few of the dilemmas described in the book during the course of my clinical work.

Sanders talks of the difficulties that doctors are confronted when they come across a rare malady or a common disease with an atypical presentation, that makes the job of arriving at a correct diagnosis a herculean task in itself. Western Medicine (Allopathy), as it is practiced today lays a lot of emphasis on naming a disease, so that the treatment protocols that have been laid out for that particular condition can commence at the earliest. This is in complete contrast to the situation that we find in Ayurveda, wherein the practitioners of that science claim that they do not treat the ailment, but they provide a holistic treatment for the patient. This line of thinking does sound logical, since each person varies on so many levels and planes, thereby calling for an individualized treatment for each patient. An approach of “one peg fits all holes” as practiced in Allopathy does not sound to be all that logical. But in most of the cases we see that the medicines or the interventions as practiced in Allopathy do work. What I wanted to put across is the point that clinching a definitive diagnosis is of the utmost of importance in the practice of Allopathy, so much so that patients and doctors crave for it. The patient needs to put a name to the plethora of symptoms that he or she has, as much as the doctor, who needs a validation of his clinical acumen.

Sanders underlines the importance of listening to the patient narrate his medical story consisting of time lines and symptoms, which has made him seek out the expertise of the medical doctor. An accomplished doctor, merely by listening to the patient narrate the clinical history would be able to pare down the possible diagnoses to a few plausible ones. If this is followed up by an astute physical examination, a fairly correct diagnosis can be arrived at. But, to achieve this, doctors need immense experience, whereby they make correlations to the cases with similar presentations that they have already seen, and thereby arrive at a fairly accurate diagnosis. An astute clinician should have the skill to make sense of the “story” narrated by the patient and arrange it into a logical pattern, whereby he is able to arrive at an informed decision as to the probable diagnosis.

The importance of physical examination of the patient cannot be overemphasized. I distinctly remember that in the late 80s, during which I had my clinical training, lot of emphasis was placed on the elicitation of clinical signs. I am of the strong opinion that proper elicitation of signs and proper examination of all the systems definitely helps in arriving at a diagnosis. Sanders had her training the US in the early 90s, where the required emphasis on clinical examination of the patient does not seem to have been placed during medical training. But the fact seems to have been recognized and Sanders does narrate the efforts being taken by the medical educationists in the US to address this issue of late. However, in India, it seems that clinical hands on examination of the patient is being given a go by in a vast majority of the cases, with undue emphasis being placed on lab investigations and radiological imaging. It is true that the new cutting-edge technologies have made the task of the clinician easier. But, my take on the issue is that a thorough clinical examination of the patient would help the clinician to narrow down the possible diagnoses to a few probable ones, and thereafter take the help of a few definitive diagnostic tests in order to confirm his diagnosis. What we see today is the sad spectacle of the patient being put through a battery of unwanted diagnostic tests in the hope of finding an aberration from the normal, thereby giving the clinician a “peg” on which he literally “hangs his diagnosis”. Needless to say, this is a wasteful approach in a county like India, which has so few resources as far as medical facilities are concerned.

The narrative alludes to a lot of atypical presentations of rare diseases like Lyme disease, West Nile fever, Still’s disease, Polymyalgia rheumatica, pernicious anemia, etc., where only the knowledge of an experienced physician saves the day. Sanders talks about the importance of “noticing what you see”, or the power of observation that is so important for a physician. It seems that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, himself a physician, had modelled his ace detective, Sherlock Holmes, on a real-life doctor, who was his teacher in Medical School. He was a Scottish surgeon named Joseph Bell who had uncanny powers of observation and great deductive prowess. Sanders says that the importance of honing the skills of observation amongst medical practitioners has been recognized in the United States, and several Medical Schools have designed ingenious training programs involving the deep observation of Art works in a bid to improve the observational skills amongst Medical students. Sanders says that it is a skill that can be learnt and developed.

Sanders finally talks of the attempts being made to harness the power of information technology and computational muscle power in making software programs that can assist the clinicians in arriving at diagnoses. However, all the pioneers working in the field have recognized the fact that making a program for a discipline such as Medicine, with its myriad variables is a difficult task in itself. But she says that the power of the computer can possibly be used in an effective manner, provided there is a human brain with clinical knowledge, behind the machine.

“Every Patient Tells a Story” is a must read for all clinicians. It does reinforce the ideas about the practice of medicine which we already know. It is an equally effective read for the layman as well. The narrative does make the practice of medicine look less forbidding to the common man as well as would make him realize the limitations of the healer.
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Aug 13, 2012 Cami rated it really liked it

As a lover of nonfiction and medical books, I really enjoyed this one! The competition described on page 112? Brilliant! The maneuver and diagnosis from pages 122-123? Fascinating! If you watch House for the medical aspect, this is the book for you--the author of this book is actually the technical advisor to the writers of House.

I'm not sure how I stumbled upon this book, but it was probably recommended to me by GoodReads since I enjoyed "How Doctors Think" by Jerome Groopman (which is actuall ...more

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Dec 28, 2012 Jeremy rated it really liked it

Most reviews for this book seem to say: "If you love the show House MD, you'll love this book."

I'd say that's mostly true; the show was partly inspired by this doctor who writes about unusual medical cases and the art of diagnosing them. She's a very good writer, and the suspense of trying to figure out these medical mysteries keeps you on the edge of your seat. You don't want to put the book down, like you're reading an actual mystery novel.

But that's only part of the book. It's interspersed ...more

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Nov 13, 2011 Amy Y. rated it liked it

Shelves: 2011-2012-advisory

Every Patient Tells a Story: Medical Mysteries and the Art of Diagnosis was a great book to read. It is about a doctor's point of view in which different kinds of patients are bringing in mysterious symptoms. For example, in one patient's story, a 19 year old girl is brought in a hospital because she was complaining about being nauseated. She didn't eat anything bad and she was in top physical condition. So, doctors tried to figure out what were the causes of her being nauseated. The overall cau ...more

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Jan 27, 2010 Wesley added it

This book caught my eye after I recognized the name from the New York Times. Lisa Sanders is a doctor, who also serves as a columnist for the New York Times section on Health. Her book is very akin to the TV series House, as it describes many cases where doctors were completely stumped by a patients symptoms, only to discover that the patients actual disease was something that could have been put in a footnote of a medical school textbook.
I really enjoyed this book because in a way, it makes the ...more

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“..I don't count Jennifer among my mistakes. She had a severe infection and precious little reserve. Nevertheless, I think of her often. Those minutes of terror and confusion I felt standing powerless in her room served as a visceral reminder throughout my training... that the big picture isn't enough in medicine...” — 2 likes

“The basic sciences of anatomy, physiology, biology, and chemistry are linked to a patient at the bedside through very specific stories that doctors learn and eventually create. These stories, what researchers now call illness scripts, contain key characteristics of a disease to form an iconic version, an idealized model of that particular disease. … It is the story that every doctor puts together for herself with the knowledge she gains from books and patients. The more experience a doctor has with any of these illnesses, the richer and more detailed the illness script she has of the disease becomes.” — 1 likes

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