Customer Reviews

The Blood of Strangers: Stories from Emergency Medicine

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Like so many I am addicted to television's ER, Trauma Vets and TLC's Emergency series. I picked up Mr. Huyler's book expecting blatant stories of gun shot victims, terminally ill children and scarred but valiant doctors. Instead I found stories that propelled me into the minds and souls of people who have chosen to witness human beings at our best and worst moments. I am very thankful to Mr. Huyler for giving me a glimpse into his life. I will undoubtedly continue to watch television dramas and documentaries of emergency medicine. Only, the next time I tune in I will look more closely for signs of the inevitable impact these experiences have on the psyches of emergency medicine professionals.

A beautifully written book that reveals a series of stories full of the drama, the pain, the humor and the insight to the dance of life in ER. Frank Huyler is an amazing writer who captivates the reader with characters in the best and worst of situations. I had to put the book down twice only to get my breath and start again. "Maggot man" will catch you off guard but you'll go back for more. These are not bloody drive by accident stories just waiting for you to gape. Rather you are romanced into the heartbeat and atmosphere of the ER. Each chapter keeps you intrigued and by the time you finish you'll be wanting more.

We are lucky that Frank Huyler has the gift of language so that he can express the inexpressible for those of us who work in medicine. The stories resonate authenticity but capture the feelings of our encounters with our patients rather than just what is visible or audible. I look forward to hearing more stories from Dr. Huyler. His youth is superseded by his wisdom and honesty

This collection of short essays elegantly and accurately portrays the life of a physician as he passes from medical school to the full responsibility of an attending physician. The triumphs and the failures, the joys and the sadness are all here, vividly described. As a practicing ER doc, and an educator, I will be recommending this collection to my residents and to my students. It ranks with the best of medical writing.

I just want to write a quick recommendation of this slim but stunning work, which mixes poetry and drama, emotion and restraint, wisdom and elegance. I can't urge you enough to read this--whether or not you have ever seen the inside of a hospital.

The mark of an excellent piece of writing is the invisibility of the prose. Picking up a book and stumbling on the words, the phrases, the writing itself, always gets in the way of a good story. A well-written story creates a situation for the reader, where, for the most part, that necessary 'suspension of disbelief' occurs, and you find yourself lost in the world of the tale. It ceases to be merely reading and becomes something else. In Frank Huyler's The Blood of Strangers, the world of the emergency room emerges from the doctor's point of view with such terrifying reality, that putting the book down, taking a break, is utterly necessary to maintain one's own perspective, one's own reality. Huyler doesn't write prose, but conjures windows into another world.

This book is a collection of scenes from the emergency room, revealing an aspect of the medicos that a lot of us would rather not know. First year medical students, for example, are assigned a cadaver to mutilate, take apart, to gain first hand knowledge of human anatomy. This the first of numerous hoops that the student of medicine must jump through in their many years of intense training. There is a tacit reason that anatomy is the first course off the rank - it is a test as to whether they have the capacity to objectify the body as mere object, divorce feeling and emotion from the human form itself. Many fail because they lack that 'scientific objectivity' and cannot stomach using a hack saw to open the skull of their subject. It is too close to home. The terrifying aspect of the Blood of Strangers is the objectivity portrayed by Dr. Huyler - he communicates a kind of cold bloodedness coupled with a profound insight and affinity with the human soul. He is at once human and inhuman, insensitive monster and caring priest - but above all, a man doing a job that most of us would rather leave to someone else.

Most all the stories told have something to teach us about the profession. Medical doctors and surgeons are a breed apart - it is almost as if they are born to the task, and their power over life and death is profound. In one of the shorter stories, Sugar, a little girl is brought into the ER because she is just 'acting a bit weird'. The father wants to forget the whole thing and take her home, while the mother instinctively perceives something amiss. Dr. Huyler asks all the appropriate questions and comes up with nothing, until he is about to leave the room, he has a second thought: "Is there any chance she might have gotten into someone's medication? Does anyone in the family take medications regularly?" As it turns out, through a process of logical interrogation, it is discovered that the little girl has overdosed on oral hypoglycemics, sugar pills, and would have died if not treated. This particular story is one of the lesser terrifying incidents, but shows us the fragility of the human condition and the vast responsibilty that burdens the medical profession.

The Blood of Strangers is a realistic insight into the mind and experience of a doctor. The book is a strange journey for the uninitiated, and a lesson in the utter fragility of human life - something we should never take for granted.

This book is highly recommended.

I used to enjoy ER when the writing was taut and reality-based. As it plummets into soap-opera I no longer wish to waste my time on it. This book is the verbal equivalent of what ER and the reality based trauma television try to convey but most often miss. Added to that is the unique vision and poetic writing of its doctor-author. Rarely have I come across a book which is so poignant and says so much in such compact cameos. Huyler is an extremely talented man with an incredible ability to narrate the daily life cycle of the emergency room. It is a priviledge to read and participate in this world, that so few of us understand or get the chance to see. This world placed on the small screen is not as glamorous or easy as they tend to make it look. The exhaustion, the emotional roller-coaster, the strange people that Huyler and his like have to deal with on a daily basis is almost unfathonable. It is with more sympathy that I understand why so many doctors and students choose not to work in such conditions and burn out or burn up so quickly. This book should be required reading for Congress and others who need to pass legislation to protect both medical students and the public from archaic requirements which leave those who work in emergency care exhausted and prone to mistakes. Huyler is a great physician who for the most part could handle the harrowing schedule and requirements of emergency medicine, but too many do not have his abilities or strength, and it is well-known that errors of judgement abound in hospitals due to exhaustion. A truly magnificent book. Karen Sadler, Science education, University of Pittsburgh

Every once in awhile, you read a book that speaks the truth that you know. The Blood of Strangers is such a book. Written by Dr. Frank Huyler, it is a glimpse into the world of emergency medecine. What sets it apart from that genre is the eloquence of the writer. He bestows a humanity upon the ill and injured and those who provide their care. It is not based on adrenelized stories of "can you top this?'. It is a careful accounting of medicine given as a service, of the empathy, the fear, the disillusionment, the hope, the constant vigil to heal and the price extracted from those who administer it. This should be a must read for anyone entering any field of medecine. And those of us already in the field, it is a reminder of why we do what we do. A remarkable book that cannot be put down or forgotten.

Whether you are a medical person yourself, or just an ER viewer looking for a reality check, this book works!

It is really a series of short essays rather than a lenghty "novel", each written with their own flair and personality. Some of them are shockers, some are thinkers, some are just plain "day in the life of" shorts. But they all are worth a look.

It is written straightforward enough for a layperson to understand without effort, but if you have medical training, there are enough details in there for you to get the "whole picture" as well.

I am something of a "collector" of medical biographies, and have several "ER" type accounts already. This one is my favorite, because not only are the tales good, but they are given the proper respect by a true author.

Once you have read this one, and are looking for more, another book in this genre that I can recommend is "Emergency Room: Lives Saved and Lost: Doctors Tell Their Stories" by Dan Sachs. It is a little inconsistent (probably because of the varying authors) but done in the same "essay" style that works so well here.

These are poetic essays by a young doctor on his varied experiences. These essays are all very different: there is death, and there is healing, but imbuing it all is the extraordinary sensitivity of a poet who also writes elegant prose. A magnificent work.