Raising the Dead: A Doctor's Encounter with His Own Mortality

by Richard Selzer

In 1991, Dr. Richard Selzer contracted Legionnaire's disease, lapsed into a coma, and began a painful journey to a place where there was "more than a hint of death." This book recounts that mysterious, dramatic journey--a trip to the underworld of disease, a place where death is constantly close.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Medical, Memoir

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Iys rAngel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Plot twist at the end??
Honestly, good book good book.
I like the blend of being poetic and being full of medical terminology.
Yay happy face

[Mona Randall · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m asking myself if I should pass this book on to my husband whose father, at 91, is in the hospital. His dad is normally a sweet, kind, soft-spoken man who has now become combative and not coherent. I will wait for a better time. A great story if it didn’t hit so close to home.

[Zee Weasel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A paragraph was used in 'Word Paintings' as an example for the excellent use of metaphors and it immediately gripped my attention; I had to read more!

I quickly devoured thus short book and I can see myself returning again in the future.

[Russell · Rating 2 out of 5]

The mercifully short account of a doctor's sudden illness, leading to his hospitalization, three-week coma, and very slow recovery. The midsection of the book deals with his weeks spent in hallucination, induced by the drugs administered during the coma and his general disorientation. In the end, it turns out he never actually read his foot-thick medical chart, but reconstructed this narrative based on his own experience with thousands of other patients in similar circumstances. Read it if this sounds interesting to you, but frankly I wish I had my two hours back.

[MomofTeen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely marvelous!

[Loren · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rather than tell the story of his own illness -- Legionnaire's disease, which led to a coma -- Selzer decides to meditate on it. This is perhaps all he can do, having been unconscious while this story took place around him.

After 3+ weeks in a coma, Selzer's heard went into tachycardia and ceased beating. Ten minutes after his death, his heart spontaneously resumed working. He tore the tube out of his trachea and the coma was broken, only for him to lapse into psychosis.

The psychotic dreams remain in his memory long after he was declared well enough to go home. Selzer struggles with the black hole in his memory surrounding his illness. He feels cheated as a surgeon, used to facing disease and forcing it to retreat, and as a storyteller, bereft of the clarity of mind that shapes drama. The reader can't help but feel disappointed too.

[Melissa Cronin]

Written from third person point of view. Great imagery. For anyone who has faced near death, Seltzer's story just might affirm what you experienced.

[Patricia Boyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story but written in a Proust-type style.