Customer Reviews

A Rendezvous with Clouds

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There are three parts to this book.

The first part deals with the Doctor's work with Native Americans on reservations in Arizona. The second part has to do with his many years as an Emergency Room physician. The final part is about when the tables are turned and he is the patient, not the doctor.

I found Tim Fleming to be an amazing man. As a physician living and working with the Hualapai Indians in Arizona, he showed a compassion and deep respect for their culture. For the rest of his life, he was comforted by the spiritual lessons he learned by living with these people. His stories of time spent there and the many unique individuals he met there were the best part of this book. Beautifully written.

The second part of the book chronicles his next adventure - practicing emergency medicine at a trauma center in northern New Mexico. He wrote about many of the serious trauma cases he dealt with. This part was not an easy read.

The final part of the book details the Doctor's long, difficult battle with cancer. During this time, he stated that he had lost his comforting trust in Western medicine. He frequently traveled to spiritual places on Indian Pueblo land where he gained his balance. In the end, however, he finally submitted to all sorts of medical procedures. He lamented that while medical technology offered "miracles", it also was lacking in warmth; lacking in the human touch; lacking in the healing concern of others. He wrote:

"There are no comforting hands in those machines; no steaming chicken soup. It's all grayish-white plastic, fluorescent lights, red laser beams on walls....and always, those cold, hard tables".

Tim Fleming died in 1999 at the age of 54. He worked hard to get this book written before his death. I'm glad he did so.