Customer Reviews

M.D.: One Doctor's Adventures Among the Famous and Infamous from the Jungles of Panama to a Park Avenue Practice

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This book details the doctor's life through his training, life-long interest in parasitology, Panama, Park Avenue practice, treatment of the Shah, etc. It is a well-written and fascinating book, told with humor. He's not afraid to tell of his times of inexperience, weakness, and mistakes.

The author is a parasitologist, who had a fascinating career. I love medical detective books of all kinds, fiction and non-fiction - this is the best I have read.

I read this book when it first came out. I heard it read on Public Radio and I knew that I had to have it. Just ran across it last week in my bookcase and am enjoying it all over again. I have practiced medicine for thirty-seven years, and this book is a great description of how medicine used to be. Dr Kean is candid and honest in his descriptions of different diseases and the treatments. His description of his encounter with the surgeon at Gorgas Hospital in the Canal Zone is classic and reflects the typical relationship between house staff(interns and residents) and attendings in the 1940s and 1950s and probably later. This is a wonderful book, and anyone will find it most informative and entertaining.
Richard M Freeman, MD

Kean is an excellent writer for a doctor... the book flowed very well and never got boring or tedious, despite the fact he was presenting a lot of medical evidence... Great read for anyone interested in infectious diseases or how medicine and politics can get tangled.

Fascinating, fast paced, well written account of one of the pioneers in the field of parasitology. Sounds like a dry subject, but it is anything but dry. Dr. Kean writes with insight, humor, compassion, self deprecation and an almost child-like fascination with the human body. He takes us through his training after medical school beginning in the Panama Canal Zone, through Europe, the Far East to the establishment of his private practice on New York's Park Avenue. The tales of his encounters with the famous and infamous (including the Shah of Iran) are a rare insight into the inner workings of diplomacy and politics. It reads like a novel with a host of colorful characters.