Fifty Years a Country Doctor

by Hull Cook

In a world of HMOs, insurance companies, and an endless flood of forms, Hull Cook reminds us that there was a time when a visit to the doctor’s office cost three dollars and doctors still made house calls. Cook recounts fifty years of service as a rural doctor in Texas and Nebraska, where a wide spectrum of dilemmas tested his resourcefulness, endurance, and sense of humor. He describes helping to deliver a baby via telephone during the Blizzard of ’49, and he explains his “special delivery” of medication in the dead of winter—an operation involving his Beechcraft Bonanza airplane and a parachute jerry-rigged from dental floss and a red handkerchief. Cook saw it all, from cow-manure poultices to snakebite to kerosene poisoning to drug addiction. His humorous account of life in the first half of the twentieth century conveys a distinct sense of the slings and arrows of doctoring on the plains.

203 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1998

Reviews

[Shayla Alura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m glad Goodreads suggested this little book, because otherwise I don’t know how I would have found it. While the format is somewhat jumbled (each paragraph is sometimes entirely it’s own anecdote, unrelated to the one before it) Cook has a charming way with words and a lifetime of interesting experiences. It’s amazing to think how far medicine has progressed since his time, but also kind of sad that a small town hospital like Cook’s could never exist in today’s medical/insurance/lawsuit environment.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a physician, this was particularly interesting. His earlier anecdotes made me laugh out loud. The editors allowed a writing style that read like a “stream of consciousness” from one short memory to the next but I could allow it from him. I was amazed at the fearless hard work by this doctor in a vastly different time of medicine.

[Peter Mayeux · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the author's first novel. He relayed his adventures in medical school and patient cases when he was established as a country doctor. Tßçz
here are several stories and situations with lots of touching sometimes humorous medical situations as he works early in his medical career in the hospital and in his office. He also recounted his unique experiences as a country doctor in a small rural town. Each adventure is part of a chapter or is in its own special place and they are not very long, 4 to 6 pages. Unfortunately, there are several spelling errors throughout the book.

[John Griffith · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a very delightful, fun, and insightful read. He takes you along on his wild and exciting medical adventires of days long past

[M · Rating 2 out of 5]

Enjoyed the early stages of his career, but lost interest before the end of the book.

[Nightwitch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining account of fifty years of practice as a doctor in rural settings in Texas and Nebraska. The longer stories are vaguely reminiscent of James Herriot - it's the same general tone, cheerful and optimistic and amused at the foibles of human nature - but unfortunately a lot of the book is taken up with paragraph-long anecdotes, which are sometimes funny but sometimes not. There is a lot of Midwestern Dad humor. It should also be mentioned that, given that he is describing an era before antibiotics and before reliable contraception, a lot of rural doctoring seemed to involve (a) childbirth and/or (b) venereal disease, both of which make for fascinating but gory anecdotes. If you have a weak stomach you probably shouldn't read this book.