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A review by ipekreading
I Can't Save You: A Memoir by Anthony Chin-Quee
3.0
As a board certified ENT surgeon, Anthony Chin-Quee looks like a story of success. In his memoir he details his battle with depression, surviving residency and his experiences as a Black doctor.
According to a 2017 study the rate of depression in adults in the US is 7.1%, while depending on the measures a 2015 study found the rate of depression among residents to be somewhere between 20.9% to 43.2% (a number that has likely increased with the pandemic). Having lived with a resident in the last few years, I have witnessed first hand how the endless hours of work becomes catastrophic and incompatible with living a fulfilling life. While I have observed a lot on the topic, a perspective I didn't have was how being Black and not having a good support structure can add to the toil of residency.
Chin-Quee formatted his memoir in a unique way, sometimes written as a conversation with the voice in his head, sometimes a poem and sometimes a screenplay. There are some medical stories and there is a lot of personal reckoning through which he forges himself a path of survival. While this made me uncomfortable to read at times (which is potentially intentional), I can definitely see this being an important read for people in medicine.
According to a 2017 study the rate of depression in adults in the US is 7.1%, while depending on the measures a 2015 study found the rate of depression among residents to be somewhere between 20.9% to 43.2% (a number that has likely increased with the pandemic). Having lived with a resident in the last few years, I have witnessed first hand how the endless hours of work becomes catastrophic and incompatible with living a fulfilling life. While I have observed a lot on the topic, a perspective I didn't have was how being Black and not having a good support structure can add to the toil of residency.
Chin-Quee formatted his memoir in a unique way, sometimes written as a conversation with the voice in his head, sometimes a poem and sometimes a screenplay. There are some medical stories and there is a lot of personal reckoning through which he forges himself a path of survival. While this made me uncomfortable to read at times (which is potentially intentional), I can definitely see this being an important read for people in medicine.