This book was recommended by my sister who is a nurse after a long debate about affordable health care so it is not my normal fare. Interesting but the author tended to ramble on leaving a lot of extraneous information in his wake. I sympathize with his own conditions but had a hard time seeing how it related to the twelve case histories. ( )

3.5 stars

The author is a doctor and was the head of the Bellevue Hospital in New York City for 14 years, I believe. This book dedicates a chapter each to one patient. One chapter focused on himself and his own bout with cancer.

I thought this was good. He was able to sit down with some of these patients and talk to them and find out more about their backgrounds, so he provides more than the medical information about each one. He talks about their lives, and how they came to be in New York and in the hospital. Some of the patients were immigrants and some were prisoners from the nearby Rikers Prison, and there is more variety in addition.

Given that he also looks at the people’s backgrounds, there is some politics thrown in, as well – some to do with the patients’ countries of origin, some with the way the US handles immigration, and some with public health care in the US and the costs. I have to say the chapter on his own cancer scared me a bit, as he described the treatments and such; what worried me was that I live alone and wonder how I would manage if I need to go through such treatments one day. ( )

I found out that NBC's show "New Amsterdam" is inspired by Eric Manheimer's book. The show is terrific. So good that I wanted to read the book!

Unfortunately, I did not have the easiest time reading this book. It felt like hit-and-miss with me. Some chapters I could feel something for the medical staff and the patients and other chapters just didn't stir up any emotion. I pretty much gave up on the last chapter.

Now that I have satisfied my curiosity, I can move onward to better books!
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What do a South American Immigrant, a cancer patient, and prisoners that live in New York all have in common? They all were somehow treated or impacted by the Bellevue Hospital. The author Eric Manheimer, writes about 12 different patients that he has treated and gotten to know during this time at the hospital, along with history about the medical field, the hospital itself, how the government influences the hospitals, and history about why so many immigrants came to New York. This book is a slow read, especially for someone who does not read much non-fiction or historical books. That being said, this book is very educational, eye-opening, and very well written.

Heather B. / Marathon County Public Library
Find this book in our library catalog.

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I found this book to be very dry. Yet, it is realistic in showing how draining and emotional it can be to work in the medical field if you truly still care for others. I worked in the medical field, and I've seen how many turn their emotions off or just don't care anymore like they have become numb. At times in the book I felt like we are being preached at for not caring more about immigrant issues. The way it was written actually turned me off, instead of making me care more about those issues. i admire the author for including his story of his own battle with disease and his fight to overcome it. He did show that his battle helped him look at his patients in a different light. ( )