Memoirs by Physicians

Physicians’ stories are all the more vital after the year we’ve endured. Today on the blog, I’ve gathered memoirs by healthcare professionals.

The Beauty in Breaking by Dr. Michele Harper

“This devastation is a crossroads with a choice; to remain in the ashes or to forge ahead unburdened. Here is the chance to mold into a new nakedness, strengthened by the legacy of resilience to climb over the debris toward a different life.”

When Breath Becomes Air by Dr. Paul Kalanithi

 “Don’t think I ever spent a minute of any day wondering why I did this work, or whether it was worth it. The call to protect life—and not merely life but another’s identity; it is perhaps not too much to say another’s soul—was obvious in its sacredness. Before operating on a patient’s brain, I realized, I must first understand his mind: his identity, his values, what makes his life worth living, and what devastation makes it reasonable to let that life end. The cost of my dedication to succeed was high, and the ineluctable failures brought me nearly unbearable guilt. Those burdens are what make medicine holy and wholly impossible: in taking up another’s cross, one must sometimes get crushed by the weight.”

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee

“Medicine, I said, begins with storytelling. Patients tell stories to describe illness; doctors tell stories to understand it. Science tells its own story to explain diseases.”

In Shock (My Journey from Death to Recovery and the Redemptive Power of Hope) by Dr. Rana Awdish

“It is entirely possible to feel someone’s pain, acknowledge their suffering, hold it in our hands and support them with our presence without depleting ourselves, without clouding our judgment. But only if we are honest about our own feelings.”