Pain, disease, hospital, treatment, medications, surgery, recovery, these words have surely made an appearance in everybody's life at some point. If the outcome of it has been positive/good, then we would surely remember the person who guided and consulted us on it aka the doctor and in case of hospitalization, the nursing staff as well. You'll surely remember a person who helped you cure of something. Well, it goes both way; the doctors and the nurses also tend to the remember particular patients for a particular set of reasons.
That One Patient by Ellen De Visser, a science journalist is a collection of stories of patients who doctors and nurses around the world couldn't forget. There are uncountable two to three paged accounts by the doctors and nurses all over the world in the book about the patients and the experiences they've had with them, the good and the bad
that have made the patient/s unforgettable to them. The accounts being brief are quite interesting and unique for they have been taken from doctors and nurses of multiple fields which makes this collection quite diverse and straight-forward. The lovely pastel cover with an appropriate image tend to invite the readers in and the lovely foreword helps us understand Ellen De Visser's point of view behind writing this book.
I'm a doctor myself and I found the book to be very intimate and absorbing, provided it's read at the pace of 2-3 accounts a day. I completed it over a course of months because I didn't want to rush through it. Each account was special and also thought provoking considering how the other side of the health care professionals was explored here indirectly. The emotions, helplessness, guilt, honesty and the feeling of going good work has been very written in a very raw manner by the doctors and nurses. Rarely this side is exhibited for the patients to consider that the health care professionals are humans too. I really enjoyed the entire book but particularly the last part about the Covid accounts make the reading relevant to the current times.
Whether you are from a medical background or not, these encounters are bound to leave you perplexed and astounded. Take out the time to read these accounts, they're certainly worth it!