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imyourmausoleum 's review for:
Twelve Patients: Life and Death at Bellevue Hospital
by Eric Manheimer
reflective
slow-paced
Twelve Patients tells various stories about patients from all different backgrounds and socioeconomic statuses who are patients at Bellevue Hospital. I did enjoy the descriptions of the patients and their cases. I think a lot of people do not consider the vast amount of people with various issues and situations that go through big hospitals like this. It was really interesting to learn about. I grew up with a nurse mom, and I loved hearing some of her stories when she was pulled into the ER or doing surgery rotation in school. (Don't worry, no privacy was compromised, plus I was also a kid and wouldn't remember anyways.) We also enjoy watching medical shows together, and this book was the inspiration behind the show New Amsterdam, which I now need to watch. The author was a medical director at this facility at one point, so he had a unique perspective compared to other books of this ilk that I have read. He also outlined his own cancer diagnosis and treatment at the same hospital in which he worked. I thought that was a neat tie in.
I did have a couple of issues with this book. The first issue is that I bought this thinking that it was a history of the hospital. That was my mistake. Sometimes, I just buy things without reading the description because it looks neat. It did include a bit of history about the hospital, which I enjoyed. I had no idea that the property was initially a farm, bought to quarantine people that had yellow fever. The first nursing school that was based on Florence Nightingale's teachings opened here, which was also really cool to learn. All I knew about it was that it was an insane asylum, which is why I wanted to buy this book... there was an asylum opened on the property and psychiactric care is still available there today. I need another book that goes more into the history of this place, but, like I said, it was my fault for not reading the description. The other issue that I had with the book was the writing and flow. At times, it was a little difficult to follow and quite scattered. I would imagine that is probably how "a day in the life" of this author was while he was working, so it is probably authentic to the experience, but was slightly annoying to read at times. Other than those two small issues, the book was really neat. If you are interested in medicine or medical history, this might be something to add to your list.
I did have a couple of issues with this book. The first issue is that I bought this thinking that it was a history of the hospital. That was my mistake. Sometimes, I just buy things without reading the description because it looks neat. It did include a bit of history about the hospital, which I enjoyed. I had no idea that the property was initially a farm, bought to quarantine people that had yellow fever. The first nursing school that was based on Florence Nightingale's teachings opened here, which was also really cool to learn. All I knew about it was that it was an insane asylum, which is why I wanted to buy this book... there was an asylum opened on the property and psychiactric care is still available there today. I need another book that goes more into the history of this place, but, like I said, it was my fault for not reading the description. The other issue that I had with the book was the writing and flow. At times, it was a little difficult to follow and quite scattered. I would imagine that is probably how "a day in the life" of this author was while he was working, so it is probably authentic to the experience, but was slightly annoying to read at times. Other than those two small issues, the book was really neat. If you are interested in medicine or medical history, this might be something to add to your list.