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A review by robin_b
A Case of Need by Jeffery Hudson, Michael Crichton
Did not finish book.
1.0
This is just a thinly veiled treatise on the ethics of abortion. Written before Roe v Wade and it did not age well. Crichton/Hudson still uses the word "Negro" and there is not a single female doctor. I was hoping for a book more like Verghrse's Cutting for Stone or Patel's The Night Theater - beautiful fiction that just happens to be in a medical setting. This whole book seemed to be written for the express purpose of showing that the author is a fancy doctor, and he knows fancy things and fancy people. Congrats.
The way he talks about the "clientele" at the hospitals is appalling. The hospital that serves lower income areas is nicknamed "Shit" something or other. All the doctors are white, rich, and expect people to bend over backwards for them. The few characters of color are corpses who died in terrible ways and make brief appearances on the autopsy table. One is a prostitute who was shot, left in the gutter, and was bitten by rats while she lay there. Totally not relevant to the plot. Just there to add some ambiance of black violence. Her death isn't investigated at all. She's just briefly mentioned as backdrop and then the characters go back to investigating the death of the Respectable White Woman.
Also, in what universe do doctors place IVs on patients in the middle of the night in the ED? That's a nurses job. I would love it if my resident came to place and replace IVs on my combative patient that keeps pulling them out. I think the only thing I actually saw a nurse *do* in this book is place shock blocks under someone's feet. I know it was written in a different time, but those OG nurses knew a lot, and they certainly did more than place blocks under people's feet. Like I said the book didn't age well. And it was seemingly written by a douche.
DND at 30%
Spoilers:
By 20% we already know that the patient died from anaphylaxis, not blood loss. The remaining mystery is who the doctor was and whether or not the patient was actually pregnant. But I found myself not caring.
.
The way he talks about the "clientele" at the hospitals is appalling. The hospital that serves lower income areas is nicknamed "Shit" something or other. All the doctors are white, rich, and expect people to bend over backwards for them. The few characters of color are corpses who died in terrible ways and make brief appearances on the autopsy table. One is a prostitute who was shot, left in the gutter, and was bitten by rats while she lay there. Totally not relevant to the plot. Just there to add some ambiance of black violence. Her death isn't investigated at all. She's just briefly mentioned as backdrop and then the characters go back to investigating the death of the Respectable White Woman.
Also, in what universe do doctors place IVs on patients in the middle of the night in the ED? That's a nurses job. I would love it if my resident came to place and replace IVs on my combative patient that keeps pulling them out. I think the only thing I actually saw a nurse *do* in this book is place shock blocks under someone's feet. I know it was written in a different time, but those OG nurses knew a lot, and they certainly did more than place blocks under people's feet. Like I said the book didn't age well. And it was seemingly written by a douche.
DND at 30%
Spoilers:
By 20% we already know that the patient died from anaphylaxis, not blood loss. The remaining mystery is who the doctor was and whether or not the patient was actually pregnant. But I found myself not caring.
.