“Practicing From the Heart (In the Age of Technology),” Reza Ghadimi (Foreword by Humayun (Hank) Chaudhry, DO, MACP), The Pulse/PAPulse, LLC (2021) 264pp. When things start to go south and everyone turns to us for guidance, it would be good to have a little inner-Shackleton to call upon. We must often take our patients on hazardous and sometimes unexpectedly long journeys. If you want to understand leadership, commitment to those in your charge and the sheer power of persistence in the face of overwhelming odds, this is great place to start. It’s a tale well told and, thankfully, without a lot of distracting literary flourishes. The book recounts how Shackleton went about making sure every one of his officers and crew made it home alive.
It embarked on one of the last great polar expeditions to Antarctica and became trapped in, then crushed by the pack ice and sunk, marooning its entire company on the ever-shifting floes without hope of rescue. We must often take our patients on hazardous and sometimes unexpectedly long journeys.Įndurance is the name of the ship captained by Sir Ernest Shackleton in 1913. Unless you never expect to have a tough day, situation or patient, it’ll help to read this story. But since then, I’ve re-read it often and lately have thought about it even more. I didn’t know about it until I was a year into cardiac surgical practice and a colleague gave me his well-thumbed copy. I know, I know… you might be saying, “C’mon, I’m pretty sure I already read this book back in the day.” Well, even if you did, I humbly suggest reading it again. We are not only the “captain of the ship” (according to our lawyers), but we are also its doctor and navigator, dutifully charting the correct position and keeping a log in the form of progress and procedure notes. For every day of smooth sailing and fair winds, there is a storm, a submerged obstacle or an unforeseen calamity. We endure a lot to get where we are and to keep moving ahead, including much adversity along the way. Perhaps if there is one quality that physicians would most benefit from it would be durability. Grant me a little leeway here because I think we can learn things from books that aren’t necessarily about medicine or physicians. I like to use this column to highlight books that might not pop up on everyone’s radar, ones readers might find interesting. “Endurance,” Alfred Lansing, McGraw-Hill, 1959 (1 st U.S. Welcome back to The DO Book Club! For May, I am reviewing “Endurance,” by Alfred Lansing, “Practicing From the Heart (In the Age of Technology),” by Reza Ghadimi and “Uncaring: How the Culture of Medicine Kills Doctors & Patients,” by Robert S.
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