34 Patients: The profound and uplifting memoir about the patients who changed one doctor’s life
£8.50
Discover the profound and moving portrait of one doctor’s life and work in the NHS
‘Wonderful – insightful and compassionate’ Dr Richard Shepherd, bestselling author of Unnatural Causes
________
They can’t teach you how to be a doctor at medical school . . .
As a junior doctor, Dr Tom Templeton learnt how to do his job from books, professors and other doctors and nurses. But the most important lessons – tolerance, kindness, resilience and bravery – he learnt from his patients.
Here, he shares the stories of just 34, and how they changed his life while he was helping theirs.
From a stillbirth to the old woman who lived a century, from the inhabitants of stately homes to the homeless, these stories whether heartwarming or heartbreaking, funny or tragic, are always inspiring and illuminating.
We are all patients, but discover for the first time how the doctors see us . . .
________
‘An admirably told story’ Spectator
‘Informative and personal, humbling and healing’ Observer
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Additional information
| Publisher | Penguin (27 May 2021) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| File size | 2397 KB |
| Text-to-Speech | Enabled |
| Enhanced typesetting | Enabled |
| X-Ray | Enabled |
| Word Wise | Enabled |
| Sticky notes | On Kindle Scribe |
| Print length | 344 pages |
by stacey ennion
A wonderful book. I could not put it down. A real insight into the wide variety of patients treated by doctors throughout their career.
by Pauline mc donnell
See above
by Katy Fallone
Great book. Very updating in places as although names etc changed still very close to life. Too personal on occasion as well…
by Nicola
After decades of experience working as a GP, I was initially reluctant to read this book, I thought it would be like a ‘busmans holiday’, what could it have to say that I haven’t already lived many times over? I think medical writing needs to be funny, surreal or profound, and I feared this would just be journalism. But I did read it and I was wrong.
The author turned out be able to freeze in time and describe with great honestly and skill the complex moments we share in our every day interactions with patients, capturing the whole range of fears, joy and pain that play a part. He manages to record the thought processes, emotions and questions raised by seeing in great detail the circumstances of so many other peoples lives, the experience of which is still enough to regularly disturb my sleep after so many years in the job. So I did find here many situations that I have lived, but he has painted such a true and honest picture of all the unseen elements; life often stranger than fiction, the drama and humour, I wiped a tear more than once.
The selection of stories succeeds in giving an accurate overview of a vast range of factors , not only physical and mental but also political and social that impact on everything. For example his clear description of the experience of a man suffering from dementia, (and of those around him), of being inappropriately stranded on an acute medical ward for a prolonged period of time because our support systems are inadequate deserves wide attention (the Health Secretary should be reading this). The ever increasing (and sometimes overwhelming) stress and time pressures, and the effects they are having on patients and doctors, are for a moment not the dominating feature of focus here. Maybe that’s the next book- in the mean time this one deserves to be read.
by AnnaLivia
This is described as ‘memoir’, but each patient story comes across as too pat, all ends tied: there is always a beginning, a middle, and an end, with characters sometimes reappearing in an ensuing story to show us what happened to them – unlike in real life. There are also pages and pages of dialogue which, unless recorded by the author at the time, must have been ‘recreated’ or ‘reimagined’ (in other words, made up). As, in addition, the author acknowledges that names and identifying details have been completely changed, this all adds up to a degree of fictionalization which belies the ‘memoir’ label. Just call it fiction.
by Seeker
I like medical ‘memoirs’ and that sort of thing; many are very good, some are pretty dire. This though, is truly terrific. It is exceedingly well written – which one would expect, seeing as the author started life as a journalist – and it is very different from other books in this genre. Instead of it being a long look at the medic’s career, it looks at one particular patient a chapter (in some chapters there are multiple patients, but all with associated issues), starting with newborn and increasing in age to the very elderly. Obviously the stories are comprehensively disguised to protect confidentiality but the basis for each one is equally obviously very true and real (and the sort of incidents/people extremely familiar to those who work in the hospital field).
One sadness that particularly struck me is how often mental health issues are the driving factor in the chapter, and how with the best will in the world very little can be done for some people due to the totally crap life they have had (I’m thinking of one patient we have who is a serial severe self-harmer for whom a lifetime of abuse cannot be assuaged even after decades of therapy and sympathetic help).
This is NOT a memoir with amusing anecdotes (such as the ever-popular Foreign Object Up The Bottom And The Astonishing Story Of How It Got There) so don’t read it expecting the humour of (say) Adam Kay. And there’s no despair (however justified) about underfunding/understaffing/impossible conditions etc – it is just about a handful of patients seen over what I take to be about 10-15 years. I really loved this book, very thought provoking and – well, yes, hate the word though I do – inspiring.
by Adam Ockelford
Thirty-four insightful glimpses of the lives of patients, as they cross the path of a new doctor working in the NHS. Touching, humorous and sad all the same time. Humanity in words, in the best tradition of Oliver Sacks. A must read!
by Tricia Sore
This book put me through many emotions and is so well written. Highly recommend reading it. Hard not to get involved with the stories.