Medical Humor

Charles O’Brien, Irish bard and giant: The cynical are moved by his flights of romance; the craven stirred by his tales of epic deeds. The Surprising Irish Giant may be the sensation of the season but only his compatriots seem to attend to his mythic powers of invention. John Hunter, celebrated surgeon and anatomist, buys dead men from the gallows and babies’ corpses by the inch. Where is a man as unique as The Giant to hide his bones when he is yet alive?

Jorge Comensal’s The Mutations is a comedy tracing the metastasis of Ramón’s cancer through his body and through the lives of his family members, colleagues, and doctors, dissecting the experience of illness and mapping the relationships both strengthened and frayed in its wake. Paying homage to forebears such as Sontag, Didion, and Tolstoy, and filled with a rough-hewn poetry of regret, rage, and, finally, resignation, The Mutations offers up a profound and funny cross section of modern Mexico, as well as a bold treatment of an unspeakable yet universal reality.

In this rollicking, dark comedy about a failing hospital in Mars, Nebraska, Dr. Wave, a kind and well-meaning outsider, leaps into a year-long fight against an overwhelming bureaucracy upheld by a corrupt administrator who refuses to budge. Wave juggles some of the worst (and silliest) medical cases of his career and struggles to manage a hostile coterie of MDs with a host of defects, the least of which is their ubiquitous lack of Medical Board certifications, while doing his best to stay professional in the face of converging forces that seem hell-bent on undoing his easy solutions.

A summer with terminal patients wasn’t what Sonia had in mind when she signed up for her school’s nursing internship program. With no previous exposure to death or dying, Sonia joins the ragtag team at Tender Hands Hospice (Your Best Last Resort) and becomes the center of attention to the oddball nurses who work in end-of-life care.

Samaritans Medical Center, Washington, DC, can't seem to look after itself and its increasingly desperate doctors, let alone its patients. The chairman of the board, billionaire arms dealer and part-time philanthropist David Soper, decides that it's time to kill or cure. Business school alumnus and Las Vegas hotel genius Max Green is the perfect man for the job. A man of vision. A man with a mission. A man who knows that wealth care is smarter than health care. He's going to make Samaritans great again.

Ella macht sich nichts vor. Sie ist schwer krank und ihr Mann John zu senil, um zu wissen, welchen Tag wir heute haben. Ob es eine gute Idee ist, sich mit über achtzig in ein Wohnmobil zu setzen und über die Route 66 nach Disneyland zu türmen? Natürlich nicht. Doch soll es das tatsächlich schon gewesen sein mit dem Leben? Ella ist die Wächterin der Erinnerungen und der Straßenkarten. Und sie werden losfahren - auch wenn sie nicht weiß, ob die Reise sie ans Ziel oder vielleicht doch ans Vergessen führt.

Nach der Geburt ihres vierten Kindes stolpert Frauenärztin Doktor Chaos sogleich von einem Ereignis ins nächste: Die neue Kollegin entpuppt sich als knallharte Konkurrentin und Ärzte verrückt machende Blondine. Mit Schwangerschaftsspeck auf den Hüften und Babykotze im Still-Dekolleté ertappt Josephine diensthabende Gynäkologen beim Sex am Arbeitsplatz, muss sich um die Schwangerschaft einer ungeliebten Chirurgin kümmern und riskiert durch den Streit mit einer Privatpatientin ihre Klinik-Karriere.

Von den Abenteuern eines vergesslichen Mannes. Daniel Koch ist sportlich, freundlich und fühlt sich topfit. Dass er manchmal Sachen vergisst, kümmert ihn nicht, das passiert ja jedem mal. Dann aber sagt ihm seine Ärztin, dass er Alzheimer hat und der Verlauf der Erkrankung nicht aufzuhalten sei. Und tatsächlich, Daniel driftet sehr rasch immer mehr aus der Realität ab.

America is in trouble - at the mercy of a puzzling pathogen. That ordinarily wouldn’t lead to catastrophe, thanks to modern medicine, but there’s just one problem: the government supply of Dormigen, the silver bullet of pharmaceuticals, has been depleted just as demand begins to spike. Set in the near future, The Rationing centers around a White House struggling to quell the crisis - and control the narrative.

Ed Patrick is an anaesthetist. Strong drugs for his patients, strong coffee for him. But it's not just sleep-giving for this anaesthetist, as he navigates emergencies, patients not breathing for themselves and living with a terrifying sense of responsibility. It's enough to leave anyone feeling numb. But don't worry, there's plenty of laughing gas to be had.

Kate has worked as a nurse in the emergency room for over 20 years, is married to a successful orthopedic surgeon, and is raising three teenagers. When she starts experiencing personality changes, such as telling her patients what she's thinking, she must find the cause before she loses her family and her career. Is it the stress from family drama or something more serious? Once she discovers the cause, she must make a decision that will alter her life forever.

A New York story, a dark comedy, Balls tells of the thirty-year-old Henry Schiller, a songwriter and lounge-player, in love with a woman far younger and more musically gifted than himself, one with her eye on other men and the rise of her own career, whose crisis deepens when he discovers he has testicular cancer.

After the death of his fiancee due to medical errors, hospital pharmacist Daniel O'Dwyer escapes to Oak Island, North Carolina. The only things on his mind are fresh sea air, fresh seafood, Fat Tire Amber Ale, and the avoidance of any type of healthcare institution. But fate and jellyfish draw him back, and reluctantly, he agrees to go undercover to combat narcotic drug diversion at nearby Boiling Grove Community Hospital.

Cameroon, 1929. As colonial powers fight for influence in Africa, French military surgeon Eugène Jamot is dispatched to Cameroon to lead the fight against sleeping sickness there. But despite his humanitarian intentions, the worst comes to pass: seven hundred local villagers are left blind as a result of medical malpractice by a doctor under Jamot’s watch.

Most days, she acts like she hates me - probably because I behave like an ass - but we both know the truth: Rainey O’Neil wants me just as much as I want her - she just doesn’t want to admit it. Good thing I’ve never been one to back down from a challenge.

Twenty-eight-year-old Lana Green has never been good at making friends. She’s perfectly happy to be left alone with her books. Or at least that’s what she tells herself. Nancy Ellis Hall was once a celebrated writer. Now 80, she lives alone in her North London house and thinks she’s doing just fine. But dementia is loosening Nancy’s grip on the world. When Lana and Nancy become unconventional housemates, their lives will change in ways they never expected. But can an unusual friendship rescue two women who don’t realise they need to be saved?

From New York Times best-selling author Kim Karr comes a flirty new love story. The whole stethoscope-and-white coat thing isn't my cup of tea. I prefer a man with an artistic vein in his body and 9-to-5 hours. And I can definitely do without the half-lidded, sleepy bedroom eyes. (Okay, so those are kind of sexy.) Tall, dark, and handsome doesn't change the fact that he's arrogant, cocky, and rude. Not that I care, but he's made it clear he wants nothing to do with a quirky girl like me, which is why he said no. Turns out no isn't an option.

WARNING: Highly prone to spontaneous fits of delirium, irrational logic, and violent, unpredictable mood swings. This individual has been sober, swollen, and hungry for the past nine months, so proceed with caution and handle with care. Anything said during the course of labor and delivery should not be taken seriously. Side effects may last up to 18 years. Please consult your physician should castration occur. And never forget, this is all your fault.

Rendered paraplegic after a traumatic event four years ago, Cameron Harris has been living his new existence alongside his sister, Tanya, in their battered Biloxi, Mississippi, neighborhood where only half the houses made it through Katrina. One stiflingly hot August afternoon, as Cameron sits waiting for Tanya during their daily run to the Biz-E-Bee convenience store, he suddenly and inexplicably rises up and out of his wheelchair.

Ernie Spiegelglass gets high, gets involved, and is about to complete his residency...he hopes. Brash, brilliant, and often profane, Ernie (alias Doc Sparrowgrass) enters the world of a San Francisco clinic and turns the entire place upside down with his riotous romances and his own unique style - which includes treating patients like people. The medical establishment is turned off to his idea of medicine - from the heart, not by the book - but Ernie can’t turn his back on anyone who comes to him for help, even if it means jeopardizing his career.