One Hundred Days: My Unexpected Journey from Doctor to Patient [Hardcover]

David Biro (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 29, 2000

A doctor's extraordinary account -- both harrowing and inspiring -- of his battle with a life-threatening illness.

At thirty-one, David Biro had everything going for him when he was diagnosed with a rare blood disease. As he charts his journey from doctor to patient, from professor of dermatology to high-interest medical oddity, Biro renders accessible and unforgettable one of the most medically advanced and seemingly miraculous procedures in modern medicine: a bone marrow transplant. And in writing about his own fears and confusions, setbacks and triumphs, he taps into the hope and anxiety we all experience when confronted with a medical world that seems to grow both more technologically sophisticated and less compassionate with each day.

In the tradition of Oliver Sacks's classic A Leg to Stand On, One Hundred Days is a searing but ultimately optimistic meditation on illness, medicine, family, and fate.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Just as he was hitting his stride as a successful dermatologist, Biro became what physicians call a "zebra"--someone with a rare disease--at age 31. Diagnosed with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, a blood disease that afflicts only one in a million people and, if untreated, is often fatal, he elected to have a bone-marrow transplant. In clear, compelling prose, the author describes what it felt like to undergo the dangerous procedure, to be hospitalized in isolation for eight weeks at the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, to deliberately destroy his immune system with radiation and chemotherapy, to have bone marrow transplanted from a healthy donor, and finally to endure the agonizingly slow, painful and depressing period of recovery. Mingled with the author's absorbing account of the transplant is an affecting portrait of the precarious family dynamics resulting from his illness. Daniella, his wife, a busy fashion industry executive, loved and assisted Biro throughout his ordeal, but felt a deep resentment of his parents and three sisters that surfaced as Biro's family intervened in caring for and supporting him. While Biro's youngest sister became the marrow donor, and his mother cooked, shopped and did the necessary cleaning to keep his apartment germ free after he returned home, Daniella maintained a cool if not hostile posture toward them that pained her vulnerable mate. Although Biro relates that his experience transformed him from an extremely self-confident individual to a man riddled with anxiety and insecurity, he believes that having been a seriously ill patient made him a more tolerant physician. Agent, Julie Merberg. (Feb.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

At 31, happily married, a recipient of an Oxford Ph.D. in literature, and launched in his New York City family-based medical practice and teaching career (he had just finished his dermatology residency), Biro was suddenly struck by tragedy. Within a week, a seemingly minor health complaint was diagnosed as paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH), a rare and very serious blood disease. The therapeutic option he chose was a bone marrow transplantAa devastating therapy. While the PNH drama is absorbing, the most intriguing aspect of this life-threatening crisis as recounted here is the physician as patient. Biro was an unusually advantaged patient (he had 24-hour telephone access to the medical establishment), and the reader realizes how much more miserable the not-so-well-connected PNH victim would be. Biro's PNH trial is a harrowing read, and one believes that he has emerged a more humane physician for having endured this pitiless ordeal. Highly recommended.AJames Swanton, Harlem Hosp. Lib., New York
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon; 1 edition (February 29, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375407154
• ISBN-13: 978-0375407154
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,084,530 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One Hundred Days by David Biro, March 8, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: One Hundred Days: My Unexpected Journey from Doctor to Patient (Hardcover)

Having witnessed my father undergo a Bone Marrow Transplant at Sloan Kettering (which he ultimately did not survive), I found David Biro's account of his own transplant to be a beautifully written and honest medical and emotional treatment of the tremendous "highs" and "lows" that accompany this complicated and painstaking procedure. From a literary viewpoint, the book was exceptional. In particular, I thought that the transition from Biro's medical and emotional abyss to his recovery was very well-handled. When the author is at his low point and incapable of any rational thought, he drops his personal narrative and covers these precarious days with excerpts from both his parents' diaries. This was a very effective tool for capturing the fragile state of the patient and bringing the reader into the lives of the other family members. I also particularly enjoyed reading about the author's trip to the sperm bank (which is necessary because of the impending radiation treatments), which was handled both honestly and humerously (describing how his wife will be reassured that their "futire offspring are peacfully resting at the bottom of a giant freezer."). Biro also has the ability to make complex medical information easily understandable to the average reader. At various times, Biro uses very effective analogies to convey these concepts to the reader. For instance, Biro effectively tells the reader how his sister's bone marrow cells, which are simply injected into his bloodstream, "know" how to enter his bone marrow (rather than some other part of his body). All in all, this is a highly compelling, emotional, well-written and philosophical account of a David Biro's experience.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic book that I could not put down, May 2, 2000

By 

Sebastian C-M (Brandeis University) - See all my reviews

This review is from: One Hundred Days: My Unexpected Journey from Doctor to Patient (Hardcover)

I am the son of one of Dr. Biro's doctors. I never fully understood what my father did and what his patients went through. I now understand what it feels like to be at both sides of the medical spectrum; being a doctor and being a patient. I have heard many sad stories of patients dying prematurely and never understood what attracted someone to such a profession. David Biro is a true inspiration to all. Yes, he did suffer from the tough task of going through and then recovering from a bone marrow transplant. But those who will or know others who will go through the same treatment should really read this book. It offers a ray of light at the end of a truly scary and dark tunnel. His account of the whole experience is both touching and comical. His writing is excellent and amused seeing a picture of my father through someone else's eyes. This book was so entertaining, i finished it in 5 days. Not the smartest idea since I'm smack in the middle of finals. Please read this, you will not regret it.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars suspenseful page-turner, September 3, 2002

By 

Ronald Scheer "rockysquirrel" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: One Hundred Days: My Unexpected Journey from Doctor to Patient (Paperback)

Biro is a writer and a dermatologist (not sure which order he'd put those in himself), and he's written a gripping account of surviving a life threatening disease. From the earliest stages, through the difficult decision to proceed with a bone marrow transplant, and the agonizing months of treatment and recovery that follow, he takes the reader by the hand through an emotionally and physically harrowing ordeal. Through it all, his life hangs in the balance, and he's written his story so well that you have to keep reminding yourself that he's had to survive the experience to write the book you're reading.

This is not to say that you don't step back now and then and realize that you're not reading the story of a typical patient. Biro clearly has all sorts of advantages by being a doctor, with numerous personal connections in medicine, including a father who is a doctor. Biro gets privileged treatment all along the way, including the advice of two specialists whom he's actually able to get together in the same room to discuss his case from their differing points of view.

In retrospect, you also realize that Biro has glossed over a remarkable stroke of good fortune -- his younger sister's being a perfect match as a bone marrow donor. While he praises his family for their tireless support at his bedside throughout his time as a patient, you feel that he also takes a great deal of this attentiveness for granted, especially the very painful procedure that his sister undergoes to be his lifesaver.

But in spite of these misgivings, a reader is likely to feel thoroughly absorbed by Biro's story. He does, after all, have to endure weeks of physical pain and discomfort, all the while knowing that he might not survive at all. It's OK for him to be more self-centered than maybe we'd prefer.

This is an excellent book for anyone in the healthcare professions, as it depicts graphically the experience of being a patient and having to endure treatment that is as life threatening as the disease being treated. As a companion to this book, I'd recommend the play "Wit," about a dying cancer patient, by Margaret Edson, also made into an HBO film by Mike Nichols, starring Emma Thompson.