Strokes are the third-leading cause of death in America, and for the lucky’ stroke victims who don’t die, about half will spend the rest of their lives trying to recover.” Roughly 700,000 American suffer a stroke each year and around 140,000 of them are fatal. Different Strokes is an in-depth look at what surviving, or not surviving, a stroke can mean. And Steven Boorstein should know-at age fifty-two, he suffered a stroke after a hit on the ski slopes of Vail. Part-memoir, part...

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Think Positive will inspire and uplift readers with its stories of optimism, faith, and strength. In bad times, and good, readers will be heartened to keep a positive attitude. A great start to the New Year.Every cloud has a silver lining. And the stories in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Think Positive will encourage readers to stay positive, because there is always a bright side. This book continues Chicken Soup for the So...

Lucky Dog is a hilarious and heartwarming memoir by a renowned veterinary oncologist who tells us what we can learn about health care and ourselves from our most beloved pets.What happens when a veterinary surgical oncologist (laymen’s term: cancer surgery doctor) thinks she has cancer herself? Enter Sarah Boston: a vet who suspects a suspicious growth in her neck is thyroid cancer. From the moment she uses her husband’s portable ultrasound machine to investigate her lump ...

A scorchingly frank look at how doctors are made, bringing readers into the critical care unit to see one burgeoning physician's journey from ineptitude to competence.In medical school, Matt McCarthy dreamed of being a different kind of doctor—the sort of mythical, unflappable physician who could reach unreachable patients. But when a new admission to the critical care unit almost died his first night on call, he found himself scrambling. Visions of mastery quickly...

Rocky Lang and Dr. Erick Montero offer up more than 200 firsthand accounts of emergency room dramas along with bizarre and insightful medical facts and stats inside Confessions of Emergency Room Doctors. Sample entries include:* Strange Disease Fact: A melcryptovestimentaphilliac is someone who compulsively steals ladies underwear.* Dr. Brown, Chicago Hospital, writes: "A woman came into the ER, ready to give birth, followed by her husband and about ten kids. Their...

An inspiring, surprising, sometimes shocking, and ultimately deeply informative memoir of the high-stakes, high-pressured life of a female heart surgeonDr. Kathy Magliato is one of the few female heart surgeons practicing in the world today. She is also a member of an even more exclusive group—those surgeons specially trained to perform heart transplants. Heart Matters is the story of the making of a surgeon who is also a wife and mother. In this powerful and moving memoir...

For over thirty years author Dr. Jeff Herten was a high-functioning alcoholicone who drinks every day yet continues to lead a productive successful life. Now he shares how alcohol can destroy livesas it nearly destroyed his. Alcohol is the single greatest social ill in the U.S. Alcohol may lead to deadly cancers of the breast colon esophagus and liver. It rots our bones corrodes our stomach lining erodes our memories and suppresses our immune systems. The Sobering Truth explores the associ...

2002 National Book Award Finalist for Nonfiction“No one writes about medicine as a human subject as well as Atul Gawande. His stories about becoming a surgeon are scary, funny, absorbing....Complications is a uniquely soulful book about the science of mending bodies.” —Adam Gopnik, author of Paris to the MoonIn gripping accounts of true cases, surgeon Atul Gawande explores the power and the limits of medicine, offering an unflinchi...

If Atul Gawande were funny--or Jerome Groopman were a working mother--they might sound something like Michelle Au, M.D., author of this hilarious and poignant memoir of a medical residency.Michelle Au started medical school armed only with a surfeit of idealism, a handful of old ER episodes for reference, and some vague notion about "helping people."This Won't Hurt a Bit is the story of how she grew up and became a real doctor.It's a no-hol...

The ABC medical drama Grey’s Anatomy has generated a flurry of interest in how medical professionals really make it through one of the most rigorous educational programs around, but how much of the medical drama seen in Grey’s Anatomy is pure entertainment, and how much is an accurate reflection of life both in and out of the OR?In The Real Grey's Anatomy, a well-known medical journalist provides some answers. He examines a group of new s...

Intern is Sandeep Jauhar's story of his days and nights in residency at a busy hospital in New York City, a trial that led him to question our every assumption about medical care today. Residency—and especially the first year, called internship—is legendary for its brutality. Working eighty hours or more per week, most new doctors spend their first year asking themselves why they wanted to be doctors in the first place.Jauhar's internship was even more harrowing than most: ...

Vital signs of hope and humanityThey are the unsung heroes of health care, putting their own lives at risk to provide support and comfort to those who need it most. Registered nurse Michael Brown has interviewed over fifty practicing nurses, spanning forty-one states and most nursing specialties. In Nurses: The Human Touch, he takes you to the front lines of his profession, where split-second, life-and-death decisions are made every day.You’ll expe...