Medical Biography

The story of two outsiders and obsessives whose collision prompted an evangelistic alliance on the furthest frontiers of underground music. Steve Davis first met Kavus Torabi - guitarist with Gong, Guapo, Cardiacs and Knifeworld - in the mid-2000s at a gig by French underground rock legends Magma. Over the next few years, this unlikely duo's shared affinity for visionary psychedelic music would become the foundation of not only a firm friendship, but also the most infectiously inclusive broadcasting style since the much-mourned death of John Peel.

This book is a continuation of my journey to become Red Dog's vet.

William Osler was one of the big four founding fathers of the Johns Hopkins Hospital and later became the Regis Professor of Medicine at Oxford. But this acclaimed physician was so much more. This is a remarkable story.

Mental health nurse Dorcas Gwata has worked closely with vulnerable young people involved in the knife crime, sexual exploitation, drug use and poor mental health that are associated with gangs. In The Street Clinic, she invites us to accompany her in her work with those exposed to gang violence by virtue of where they live. By meeting young people on the street and on their terms, Dorcas demonstrates that with care and support it is possible for young people to work through trauma, depression and anxiety and towards recovery and a better future.

I really need people to understand the reason behind me writing this book about my grandmother Henrietta Lacks. For those who have never heard of her, she is the first human whose cell line was able to grow in culture; her cells were unlike any other cells. While others cells would die, Henrietta Lacks cells doubled every 20 to 24 hours. She has contributed to the medical field in ways that no other cell line has done. HeLa cells has helped with the polio vaccine, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, sensitivity to tape, dental, and even used in the cosmetic field.

If you've ever wondered how to clean a ferrets' GI tract or remove corneal ulcers from a pot-bellied pig, you'll soon learn much more than that. Beyond the clinical side of Dr. Hess's experience as one of only a few exotic animal veterinarians, Unlikely Companions tells the story of what the remarkable pets she treats and their equally eccentric, dedicated, and sometimes demanding owners have taught her about the importance of loving and healing ourselves.

On the eighth of February, Dr Dominic Pimenta encountered his first suspected case of coronavirus. Within a week, he began wearing a mask on the tube and within a month, he was moved over to the Intensive Care Unit to help fight the virus. Duty of Care is the first book to tell the full story of the COVID-19 pandemic from someone on the front line, working in one of the NHS's hardest hit areas.

Abortion is an emotionally charged topic. Morality, social justice, religion, and law have transformed an intimately personal medical choice into an intensely collective debate. But behind the heated rhetoric are the very real stories of women who have felt alone, scared, and helpless. There are also the stories of the people who work at the clinics. It’s time to remove politics from the conversation in the United States and shine a light on the multifaceted medical and personal experiences from the inside.

In the final stretch of his doctoral internship, Dr. Jonathan Mathias Lassiter had just one more milestone to complete: the diversity project, where candidates insert themselves into a situation in which they'd experience what it’s like to be a minority and then share their experience with the class. Surprisingly, the all-white training committee failed him! They concluded that the program’s first and only Black intern did not understand diversity. Frustrated and panicked, he thought: “These white people are crazy."

Working as a vet for nearly five decades, James Cameron Weir has his fair share of stories to tell. From escapee parrots to a stoned cat, helping in charity parades and assisting farmers in the middle of the night, James has seen it all. Here, he recounts stories not only from his own days in practice, but also tales from his colleagues and the history of animal welfare in Scotland. Anecdotes of all creatures great and small can be found within.

While speaking at a memorial event in 2006, Siri Hustvedt suffered a violent seizure from the neck down. Despite her flapping arms and shaking legs, she continued to speak clearly and was able to finish her speech. It was as if she had suddenly become two people: a calm orator and a shuddering wreck. Then the seizures happened again and again. The Shaking Woman tracks Hustvedt's search for a diagnosis, one that takes her inside the thought processes of several scientific disciplines, each one of which offers a distinct perspective on her paroxysms but no ready solution.

It begins with numbness on her left leg. Then it spreads. Even though an MRI finds a "mass" on her brainstem, it takes two more years for Meredith O'Brien to learn what is causing that numbness. Months after her sixty-five-year-old mother dies from a fast-moving cancer, weeks after her father is hospitalized and she experiences an unexpected job change, she learns she has multiple sclerosis. Suddenly, Meredith, a married mother of three teens, has to figure out how to move forward into a life she no longer recognizes.

Based on experiences of a New York City resident and Emergency Service Technician, Concrete Lifeguards is a book that tells us about the life of the men and women behind the uniform.

At age 32, I woke up in a hospital bed. I was paralyzed on the entire left side of my body. After two weeks of extensive testing, medical doctors diagnosed me as having multiple sclerosis (MS). MS has the highest rates of depression among all disabilities. I have learned how to reframe everything, and I have minimal depression. I live an energized, full, and loving life, and I can transfer my process.

Restaurateur, magazine publisher, celebrity chef, and nationally known lifestyle maven, B. Smith is struggling at 66 with a tag she never expected to add to that string: Alzheimer's patient. She's not alone. Every 67 seconds someone newly develops it, and millions of lives are affected by its aftershocks.

Burning the Days captures a singular life, beginning with a Manhattan boyhood and then, satisfying his father's wishes, graduation from West Point, followed by service in the Air Force as a pilot. In some of the most evocative pages ever written about flying, Salter describes the exhilaration and terror of combat as a fighter pilot in the Korean War, scenes that are balanced by haunting pages of love and a young man's passion for women.

On a sunny spring day, in an ordinary kitchen, Rosemary answers an unexpected phone call. A car has hit her husband, Hugh. Rosemary arrives at the hospital just in time to see him before he's rushed into surgery. Thinking of their twin daughters, Rosemary pleads with her unconscious husband as he lies on a gurney. "Don't you leave me Hugh Rawlins. Anna and Mary need you. I love you." Overwhelmed, but determined to bring Hugh back home, Rosemary leans on family and friends as Hugh endures two emergency brain surgeries, a coma, and a confused awakening.

Caroline Crampton’s life was upended at the age of seventeen, when she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a relatively rare blood cancer. After years of invasive treatment, she was finally given the all clear. But being cured of the cancer didn’t mean she felt well. Instead, the fear lingered, and she found herself always on the alert, braced for signs that the illness had reemerged.

In 2014, I was diagnosed with avascular necrosis of the hips. That’s when my nightmare began. What is avascular necrosis? Avascular necrosis (AVN), also known as osteonecrosis of the femoral head, occurs when the blood supply to the bone is decreased. This interruption in blood supply causes small cracks and breaks in the bone. If the AVN is left untreated, the bone will eventually die and collapse. Over 20,000 people acquire AVN every year, typically between 20 and 50 years old.

When Lorna Crozier and Patrick Lane met at a poetry workshop in 1976, they had no idea that they would go on to write more than 40 books between them, balancing their careers with their devotion to each other, and to their beloved cats, for decades. Then, in January 2017, their life together changed unexpectedly when Patrick became seriously ill. Despite tests and the opinions of many specialists, doctors remained baffled. There was no diagnosis and no effective treatment plan. The illness devastated them both.