The Human Kind: A Doctor's Stories From The Heart Of Medicine

by Peter Dorward

Overview

Everyone is a patient sooner or later. Almost everyone has some experience of being misunderstood by doctors; encounters with difficult doctors; of relationships burdened with mutual bafflement, hostility and pain.

Every doctor is haunted by memories of difficult relationships with patients, of the decisions made, and the outcomes that followed. People whom, despite all of their patience, persistence, the best communication, diagnostic and reasoning skills, they haven't helped. People for whose unique suffering it seems medicine has nothing to offer.

Dr. Peter Dorward explores the many ethical dilemmas that GPs must face every day, to explain why it is that despite vast resources, time, skill and dedication, medicine is so often destined to fail. His recollections include his worst failures and biggest challenges, ranging from the everyday, the tragic, the grotesque, the villainous and the humorous. The Human Kind presents a fresh understanding of the difficult relationship between doctor and patient, and the challenges which both must face.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781472943903
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	09/04/2018
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Dr. Peter Dorward grew up in St Andrews, Scotland. Having worked for a number of years as a doctor in Bolivia, Nicaragua, Belize and London, he is now a GP and medical teacher based in Edinburgh. He is an award-winning author of short stories and screenplays. His novel Nightingale was published in 2007 by Two Ravens Press.

Table of Contents

Introduction: A Private Garden 1

I Just Want to Help you to Die 13

The Problem of Alicia's Smile 37

How to be Good 51

The Real Karlo Pistazja 75

The Words to Say It 105

Shangalang 141

Three Views of a Mountain 167

Opiates are the Opiate of the People: Part 1 199

When Darkness Falls 235

The Ghost in the Machine 273

Opiates are the Opiate of the People: Part 2 303

Notes on sources 335

Acknowledgements 339

Editorial Reviews

Moving, compassionate and beautifully written – this book illuminates general practice the way Henry Marsh has illuminated neurosurgery. Dorward's stories from his practice are subtle, eloquent and told with great integrity. He doesn't shy away from confronting some of the most difficult challenges in medicine. But he carries the reader through with verve, imagination and great humanity. I loved it.” —author of Adventures in Human Being

“Peter Dorward has created a moving and thought-provoking insight into complexities of contemporary general practice” —Dr. Jed Mercurio, writer/producer of Line of Duty, Cardiac Arrest and Bodies

“...funny, edgy, moving, it ambushes you with sudden kindnesses and flashes of human resilience and goodness.” —Allan Little

“wise and illuminating… a compelling and beautifully written account of learning to be a doctor” —Sunday Express

“This wise and illuminating collection of case histories examines the many ethical dilemmas that doctors face every single day” —Sunday Express

“Dr Dorward describes, with sensitivity and acute insight, the ethical and emotional dilemmas doctors face every day.” —The Daily Mail

From the Publisher