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The Orange Man and Other Narratives of Medical Detection
- GenresMedicineNonfiction
First published June 1, 1971
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About the author
Berton Roueché
68 books28 followersBerton Roueché was a medical writer who wrote for The New Yorker magazine for almost fifty years. He also wrote twenty books, including Eleven Blue Men (1954), The Incurable Wound (1958), Feral (1974), and The Medical Detectives (1980). An article he wrote for The New Yorker was made into the 1956 film Bigger Than Life, and many of the medical mysteries on the television show House were inspired by Roueché's writings.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 23, 2024
OMG, did this bring my childhood back to me. And also my teens too. Because I can remember many doctor sessions that went along the lines of these exact types of inquiries. Trying to reach a prognosis for conditions that were not "named" or were too rare to be seen by the average family doctor. They happened to me consistently until I was about 6 or 7. Then less frequently but still a couple of times a year. I weighed 29 lbs in 3rd grade and was ALWAYS anemic. You'd never know it now. LOL! Genetic condition people still have this happen to them all the time.
The writing is closer to 3 stars, but it is SO of its time that I forgive some jumpiness.
Excellent window into the state of medicine, when many life situations or medicines or new chemicals or products became part of a health mix which perplexed the most medical savvy.
The title orange man I knew what it was immediately because I knew someone who had that occur.
It's also a pleasure to know how far medicine has come in the last 80 or 90 years. No more so than in epidemics. YET, a single sentence in this book- which is STILL accurate (except for omitting ebola) does SO convey how absolutely wrong decisions were made during Covid 19 lock down path.
Cholera, Smallpox, Plague, Yellow Fever, Diptheria - diseases of spread that demand quarantine.
The chapter on epidemics was 5 stars. I learned much about sweating sickness and others that were pervasive and then just disappeared entirely.
The chapter on the women with such spasms that broke her hips! OMG -I still do not understand how Valium helped it.
The writing is closer to 3 stars, but it is SO of its time that I forgive some jumpiness.
Excellent window into the state of medicine, when many life situations or medicines or new chemicals or products became part of a health mix which perplexed the most medical savvy.
The title orange man I knew what it was immediately because I knew someone who had that occur.
It's also a pleasure to know how far medicine has come in the last 80 or 90 years. No more so than in epidemics. YET, a single sentence in this book- which is STILL accurate (except for omitting ebola) does SO convey how absolutely wrong decisions were made during Covid 19 lock down path.
Cholera, Smallpox, Plague, Yellow Fever, Diptheria - diseases of spread that demand quarantine.
The chapter on epidemics was 5 stars. I learned much about sweating sickness and others that were pervasive and then just disappeared entirely.
The chapter on the women with such spasms that broke her hips! OMG -I still do not understand how Valium helped it.
Displaying 1 of 1 review