‘put a tourniquet over your verbal hemorrhage’

the very same words stolen from a book whose writer my brother recommended. say, I trusted his taste enough to rent a piece by this novelist. glad I did.

DOCTORS by erich segal.

a book rental in the city has some of his works. I haven’t any idea what his masterpiece was so i immediately went for one I can relate to, a medical tale. I perused it weeks ago and since then I’ve been working up to concoct my own review. but as I dare try to, my wits would fail me. I’ve never been the kind who can write voiced sketch with formal structure. My brains would explode and my carpals get along with it that it’s hard to keep up, control and balance the facts from mere intuitions. I love to write and I fancy making an income out of it. but it’s effortless to ward off the thought seeing as most of the time, I reason not with logic, but with my damned emotions. I can’t be an accomplished writer. simply put, every time i pick up my pen, it’d be a verbal hemorrhage beyond intervention. So let the bloody words flow. don’t hand me the tourniquet. Let me get carried away, be shallow and irrational. let me be me. At least, let me chronicle without pausing to wonder if these even make sense to you—–because even if I run in circles all the time, these make sense to me!

straightforward. witty. inspiring. even Thesaurus fails me.

DOCTORS took me into the world of learned heroes. Yes, the aspect of medicine lured me but what kept me reading was the very experience of learning each time I turn a page. Not just the bit about jonas salk inventing the polio vaccine. It was the facts of life being translated to meaningful words. It opened a window where I was able too look over the lives of the individuals who tread on the profession I so long wished to practice. Thought id seen enough of grey’s anatomy and house. I was wrong.

e. segal coined the term ‘wounded healers’ and by and by created situations in the novel that proved doctors can be as helpless as their patients.

a book of books. It’s a genuine mix of family portrait, humor, romance and medical drama it registered from their homes up to the pressurized walls of world’s biggest health institutions. In-between was Harvard medical school.

Other than detaching myself from reality to go someplace where I am a writer and doctor, I always had these weird illusions about being in a fortunate position to choose from among the Ivy League institutions. And I would be torn between Harvard and Dartmouth. haha! a girl can only dream right?

To propose going to Harvard is suicide used to be overrated for me. not anymore. im sure segal wasn’t bluffing about how tough Harvard can be. Med school is hardcore…..combine it with Harvard. A stone’s throw from hell.

Now, let me deliver the characters.

Barney and Laura, best friends ever since they were old enough to ask about the birds and the bees. I was halfway through the book, imagined the lousy relationships each of them had, pictured them comforting each other hoping they’d look at each other’s eyes and realize at that instant the answers are staring them in the face. But for long a time, the romantic tension never materialized until the later part of the story. But guess what? never to my displeasure. The heart of it was only given a page or two. But I can reckon that to be one of the most moving dialogues ever born in literature. Brief but real romantic. So fro the romance-hungry, this will satisfy you in every sense of the word.

Barney and Laura, a couple but still, they’re two separate individuals. there’s a lot to talk about.

Barney wanted to be a doctor when one physician refused to give his father medical assistance. A well-rounded person, he busies himself not just with medicine, but with sports and writing as well. he’s mature and secured to survive the tics of the chaotic minds of his clients. He was already Dr. phil even before he swore the Hippocratic oath. And it was in HMS that he learned how readily doctors get wounded. His character gave an end to my wanting to cut and slice. I’ve been fascinated with the works of the and been amazed at how smoothly surgeons operate on the table. I wanted to be a neurosurgeon until DOCTORS reached my hands. You can pry open the brain without a knife. Much better than the surgically invasive Burr Hole, are psychoanalysis and free association. God, I love Freud!

Barney always says the right words. Even in the cruelest manner, he’s right. I wanna be that person. I wanna be able to recognize when someone is consuming his defenses as he struggles with reality and I be able to point that out to him——that it’s normal to be crazy once in a while. After all, we’re just human, entitled to some form of insanity. But I also mean to be that one person who can keep him sane. I want to be a psychiatrist more than I’ve ever wanted to be a surgeon.

Laura. It was in her genes to practice medicine. Her father being a physician too. She’s a wounded healer because the beautiful family she used to have has gone berserk ever since her sister died of polio before the vaccine was synthesized. she’s a wounded healer because if and when her patients get sicker and she can do nothing about it, she breaks down. She’s wounded because she meets mr. right at the wrong time or she has mr. right but no time. It’s grueling to be in the doctors’ shoes. They can go for 36 hours (or more) without REM cycle. They kill themselves as they save other people’s lives. It’s ironic that while they heal their patients, they get wounded in the process, physically and emotionally.

A story of stories. It doesn’t start or end with just barney and laura.

Bennett. A fine, rich black genius who has everything except acceptance. He was the only black fellow in their class. An added touch was that he’s a jew. So no matter how graceful his hands are on the table, he was always labeled. That for one unfortunate circumstance, he lost the one medium of his brilliance only because he tried to save a racist. Instead, he was charged for murder and was beaten to death by the folks. He can cut no more. Truthfully, he can be great at nay field but the OR was his fortress. At some point in our lives, we’ve been discriminated against, insulted or stolen the chance to live our dreams. Bennett have had the share of all of it. But Segal created him smart; wise enough to move forward. He extends his genius from the OR to the courtroom. So, Segal turned from robin cook to john grisham.

Seth. He’s the top-of-class kid. Very intellectual, driven. But what pushed him to medicine was nothing I ever could expect. 007. the license to kill. He has a brother gone vegetable and his parents are hoping against all odds he’ll gain normalcy even when every doctor has confirmed otherwise. He thought he needed to put an end to his brother’s suffering and to his parents’ as well and believed that lies in his hands now. And so he did. Mercy killing was an every day topic in our Ethics class. I guess I was too feeble-minded back then to confront my own issues towards it. Just that, Catholicism should make me pretty decisive about antagonizing euthanasia. But it’s not. I don’t know on what ground should I be standing. Seth’s story is an awakening for me; that I should explore myself more and ponder ever so deeply. There’s a lot to know about me.

The novel showcased Erich Segal’s vast knowledge on history, politics, religion, medicine and law. But most significant was his own encyclopedia about life. He created it to be direct and very perceptive that for one who years learning, you really couldn’t ask for more. I may not have read a huge enough collection of books to consider this to be the best but I am certain this work of his is one for your

book—–shelves!