Julia's Mother: Life Lessons in the Pediatric ER

by William Bonadio

A real-life pediatric emergency room doctor reveals the trials, heartbreaks, and triumphs of his work.

It's a place of intense human drama, life's highest hopes and deepest despairs. A place we rarely get to see through a doctor's eyes.
But now the emergency room at a children's hospita is revealed in a moving and personal notembook by William Bondio, MD. It recounts the lessons a doctor learns beyond the textbooks, revealing insights into the human condition at its most vulnerable and courageous moments--from the patient who, after intense medical therapy, gives up the will to live, to the sick newborn baby who never would. We feel the power of a mother's instinct to advocate for her handicapped child, and observe the wisdom of an immigrant father who intuitively senses things the doctors cannot. Finally, with the mother of a young patient named Julia we share in the nobility of a parent's unending search to find meaning in tragedy.

Genres: Medicine, Medical, Nonfiction

192 pages, Hardcover

First published April 11, 2000

Reviews

[Ariya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this, very impactful and meaningful to someone who will be going to medical school and expect to have similar experiences and hardships such as those in this book.

[Connie Paddle · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book on the life of a medical student, intern, resident and then Doctor. Gives a lot of insight into what happens from his perspective.

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I read this book once a number of years ago, I didn't remember the details, and after completing it again this week, I understand why. In theory, a book about a pediatric ER should be a mix of the amusing, the adorable, and the heart-wrenching, but I felt that Bonadio glossed over much of it, especially considering his book falls short of 200 pages. It was written in the early 2000s, so perhaps the shadow that is HIPAA was cast over his writing and he felt he had to limit his case histories, but it just left me wanting more. Other books I have read presented, with varying levels of success, the life lessons Bonadio wanted to impart with direct correlations to specific patients or groups of patients, but I felt in general there was just too little of both to make this book great.
He opens the book telling the story of Julia, a little girl hit by a car and very severely injured. By the title, you might assume Julia and/or her mother inspire a common thread throughout the book, but Julia doesn't get mentioned again after the first chapter until the final chapter. In between, Bonadio tells of his rise to becoming a pediatric ER doctor, sharing tales of medical school cadaver lab and his first encounter with a medically fragile child during residency whose chart had as many volumes (5) as the child was years old due to frequent hospitalizations and doctors' visits, rarely seeing the same doctor twice. So even there, the title is deceiving, as a bunch of the life lessons don't arise as a result of something that happened in the pediatric ER after all.
Overall, it was not a horrible book. Simply one that fans of the medical non-fiction genre like myself will read through quickly and be left wanting more.

[Susan Ozment]

A Memoir titled "Julia's Mother" by William Bonadio; M.D. is a very intellectual and astonishing book about the emergency room and becoming a doctor. Although some words I could not understand, this book was really a page-turner. This paperback was the true-life lessons he learned while working in an emergency room. At the begging of this book the doctor comes into contact with young Julia, who was hit by a car in her way to school. Julia was crossing the street in front of her school when a man was driving by and hit her, ripping her little limbs around. Unfortunately she did not make it. After this section in the book he goes on telling about all the different kinds of classes he had to go through for him to become a doctor.
One thing I liked about this book was the word choice. The words just came together and painted a vivid picture in my head and made feel as though I was there. If not a reader read this book, it is worth it. In the begging, center the words all seem to help me get a better understanding about the book and what's going on. I must admit a lot of the words were hard to understand, but if you read with a dictionary next to you, you are good to go.
The only thing I did not like about this book was how the author skipped around. First he would talk about one thing then in the next chapter he would jump to something else. When you first start to read to think it is about a girl's mother, then immediately into the next chapter you learn about something else. It was easy to follow along but occasionally I was lost in the chapters and the words. The book was like that of a roller coaster almost every chapter was different from the next.

[Elizabeth Havey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This treasure of a book contains the words, thoughts, fears and advice of William Bonadio, MD, a man who lives his life providing care to children and others as a doc on the ER night shift. Sub-titled "Life Lessons in the Pediatric ER", this is a book I have been wanting to read for a long time and finally found on Amazon. Julia dies in the first chapter. Bonadio does everything he can to save the child. Then this doctor and insightful human takes us through his med school experience, his realization of the spiritual gifts of a cadaver, his understanding of the weaknesses that doctor's possess. After all, they are human. Toward the end of these 181 pages, he shares all that he must do to prepare for each shift, to be able to face the death and destruction of humans as his work requires. When he then meets Julia's mother a year later, and she asks if he believes Julia's soul was still in the ER when she finally arrived--he does not hesitate. He tells her yes, recounts the many times he has witnessed the powerful bond between mother and child. She later thanks him, tell him, "Thank you for helping me put into words what I already knew in my heart."

[Shushan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Basically, this doc needs to be my mentor.

This is such a beautifully written book about what it's like to work in the pediatric ER. He writes poetically and with such great empathy for his patients and their families.

there were moments where I disagreed with some of the things he said but I have a feeling the conversation we'd have regarding these moments would have left us both better people.

[J.A. Busick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a bad book in its genre -- "doctor's memoirs" -- but Bonadio writes like a doctor. I don't know why -- I love this genre, but for some reason, physicians think the way to write lyrical text is to lard it with improbable metaphors. But, as I've said, it's a subgenre that I enjoy, and this was a pretty good one.

[Marianne Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very easy read. But being an easy read does not diminish the impact that this book will have on you.

My daughter was very sick at 6 months old and had many trips to the ER. This book shows the reader through the doctors eyes, how life in the ER is.

It was amazing, heartwarming, riveting and poignant. I loved it.

[Asher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not that I've read many books by doctors, but Bonadio has amazingly poetic writing. Though the book is short, it contains deep truths and hints of the spiritual.

I also realized that I could never be an ER doctor, especially working with children. That Bonadio does this work day after day, and writes about it in stunning prose is wonderful.

[Lindsay Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked it! It puts things in perspective for any of us who have spent time in the ER.