Death of the Good Doctor

Book excerpt: DEATH OF THE GOOD DOCTOR-LESSONS FROM THE HEART OF THE AIDS EPIDEMIC A physician's memoir Kate Scannell abandoned her academic career in 1985 expecting to enter an "ordinary" medical practice in Northern California. Instead, the thirty-two-year-old physician found herself assigned to an Alameda county hospital's AIDS ward where much of the medicine she had studied over many difficult years was rendered irrelevant. Working with AIDS patients, nearly all of whom were dying, Scannell discovered the inadequacy of the "good doctor" who battles illness to keep patients alive regardless of their suffering. By embracing her patients' unique needs and stories, Scannell reached an expanded understanding of her patients and of herself as a physician.