Ask the Author: Andrew Bomback
Answered Questions (3)
Andrew Bomback
The idea started with a conversation I had with a colleague in the hallway of our hospital. She'd just done a medical procedure and, reviewing the post-procedure X-ray, had discovered a significant complication. She was on her way to tell the patient about this complication. It was the kind of moment that patients never see, a doctor kicking herself for an unforeseen event that was out of her control. She was incredibly vulnerable in her dialogue with me, and yet I knew that when she talked to the patient, she would be 100% professional and composed in explaining what had happened and what would be done to manage this complication. I wanted to share this aspect of medicine - namely, that doctors have hidden and very human sides - with non-doctors. At around the same time, my 3-year-old daughter was asking lots of questions about my job, questions that I had difficult answering succinctly and in a 3-year-old manner. Writing this book was a way for me to formulate answers to her questions about what a doctor does.
Andrew Bomback
Reading great books - the book that most inspired me to write DOCTOR was Eula Biss's ON IMMUNITY. I was blown away by how deftly she combined scientific writing with personal essay in the book, and I wanted to try for that same hybrid experience in my own writing.
Andrew Bomback
A book-length essay on the intersection between doctoring and parenting - put slightly differently, an essay which tries to answer the question, "Does being a doctor make me a better or worse parent?"
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