Medical Memoirs

A healing resource that blends practical plant-based knowledge with spiritual reconnection to show how a respect for and communion with our natural world guides us toward healing.

Following up her international best seller The Zookeeper's Wife, Diane Ackerman tells the breathtaking story of the stroke that deprived her husband, Paul West - a distinguished novelist and poet - of every scrap of language beyond the syllable "mem". In her characteristically glorious prose, Ackerman weaves together the latest science on stroke and the brain’s ability to store and process language, with her intensely personal journey as caregiver in helping Paul to an extraordinary recovery.

In this book, Prusiner tells the remarkable story of his discovery of prions - infectious proteins that replicate and cause disease but surprisingly contain no genetic material - and reveals how superb and meticulous science is actually practiced with talented teams of researchers who persevere. He recounts the frustrations and rewards of years of research and offers fascinating portraits of his peers as they raced to discover the causes of fatal brain diseases.

Virginia Howes was a mother of four doing the ironing when she had a revelation. Still broody, but not really wanting to add to her family, she realised that becoming a midwife was her true vocation. It was a long journey to get the education and qualifications she needed, especially with a young family, but she was determined and never doubted her decision. Following her training, she spent three years working within the NHS, but her naturally independent spirit fought against the constraints of the system and 12 years ago she decided to set up on her own.

`புகை, மது உடல் நலத்திற்குக் கேடு என்ற வாசகத்தை திரைப்படங்களிலும், அட்டைகளிலுமச்சிடும் எந்த அரசும் உற்பத்தியை நிறுத்தி அதன் பொருட்டு வரும் வருமானத்தை இழக்கத் தயாராக இல்லை. '

As director of the world's largest abortion clinic and the nation's most prominent abortionist, Dr. Bernard Nathanson presided over 60,000 abortions. As co-founder of the National Abortion Rights Action League, he helped make abortion legal. Then, in a conversion that made headkines and astonished both sides of the abortion debate, he renounced his profession to become a pro-life advocate. But Dr. Nathanson's journey was not over.

Following Kate Marshall’s first year in the mortuary at a north of England NHS hospital, with each month exploring the people she meets, in life and death, as well as her own growing awareness of life behind the veil. Sorry for Your Loss is haunting, uplifting and informative, with many moments of laughter, and shows us that the way we approach death can make life all the more precious.

In this deeply moving memoir, Dr. Bhaskar Bora recounts his life-changing journey through a spinal cord injury and a battle with cancer. I Died Standing Still is a raw and powerful story of resilience, courage, and transformation. More than a personal narrative, it is a testament to the human spirit’s ability to rise from adversity and find meaning, creativity, and hope in the darkest times.

These are the extraordinary realities of the NHS front line. From the historic junior doctor strikes to the 'humanitarian crisis' declared by the Red Cross, the overstretched health service is on the precipice. This is a powerful polemic on its systematic degradation and a letter of optimism to that same health service and those who support it. It captures with tenderness a new doctor's experiences of an NHS at breaking point.

At first glance, Josh Hanagarne seems an improbable librarian. He stands 6'7", competes in strongman contests, and was diagnosed in high school with Tourette's syndrome. But books are his first love - Josh's earliest memories involve fantastic adventures between the pages of Gulliver’s Travels and a passionate infatuation with Fern from Charlotte’s Web. Everything in Josh’s life - from his Mormon upbringing, to finally finding love, to learning to control his tics through lifting - circles back to a close connection with books.

Most would not expect a book about a stroke to be entertaining, but this memoir will force you to laugh through a tragedy, then cry, then laugh again. Avrel Seale was fifty, did not smoke or drink, had low blood pressure, and had hiked more than two hundred miles the year a stroke nearly ended his life. In an instant, he was teleported into the body of an old man—unbalanced, shaky, spastic, and half-paralyzed. Overnight, he was plunged into a world of brain surgeons, nurses, insurance case managers, and an abundance of therapists.

Heather is pale and thin, seventeen and pregnant with twins when Patricia Harman begins to care for her. Over the course of the next five seasons Patsy will see Heather through the loss of both babies and their father. She will also care for her longtime patient Nila, pregnant for the eighth time and trying to make a new life without her abusive husband. And Patsy will try to find some comfort to offer Holly, whose teenage daughter struggles with bulimia. She will help Rebba learn to find pleasure in her body and help Kaz transition into a new body.

Welcome to the world of dentistry, where nervous clients are a part of daily life and root canals, abscesses and fillings just a few of the delights in store. But for Milad Shadrooh, there is no better job in the world. As a toddler, Milad was destined to become a doctor, but when it came down to it, the prospect of being continuously on call and wading through blood and gore felt like some form of torture. He chose dentistry and twenty years on, Milad has become the UK's most celebrated dentist and a YouTube sensation.

In January 2019, after experiencing a lifetime of poor sleep and a rapid and dramatic degeneration of his ability to sleep over the course of 2018, author and nondual entheogenic educator Martin Ball completely lost the ability to sleep for 10 consecutive days. This horrific event, what lead up to it, and the challenging and difficult aftermath is explored in intimate personal detail in this book. No stone is left unturned in this unintentional exploration of the altered states of being awake.

From Mercy Ships surgeon Dr. Mark G. Shrime comes an inspiring memoir about finding the answer to life's biggest question—"Why?"—and about following that answer through remarkable, unlikely places on the road to fulfillment, purpose, and joy. SOLVING FOR WHY chronicles one man's journey to...

Made to Live depicts a physician’s journey to save lives. Dr. Paul Saba begins his story with the battle to save the life of his baby girl, Jessica, who was born with a severe congenital cardiac malformation. He describes the challenges of facing difficult diagnoses through both his personal experiences and those of his patients. This book debunks the myths of euthanasia and assisted suicide.

After 28 days on a respirator, hanging in the balance of life and death at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Queens, Gary Mizel was well enough to be sent into a rehabilitation center to regain the strength to hold up his head and walk again. A month later, Mizel was released to his only family member, his sister Vicki, and returned to his home in Astoria. This miraculous story of recovery is being published in Vicki Mizel’s newest book, A Sister’s Love–How Family Bonds Can Save a Life.

Anticipating a career in medicine, Dr. William A. Haseltine was in his first weeks of graduate studies at Harvard when a legendary physician-scientist offered this advice: “You can do more for human health through science than you ever could as a doctor.” That advice hit him “like a thunderbolt” - and he took it. Since then, Dr. Haseltine has helped combat cancers, worked to contain the HIV/AIDS pandemic and unlocked the power of the human genome to develop dozens of new pharmaceutical cures.

An inauspicious encounter in a doctor's surgery during a routine follow-up for IVF initiated a descent into a labyrinth of questioning and uncertainty. Those first words ushered out of the doctor's mouth started a year where the author's mind was consumed by medical research, medical terms, hospital visits, medication and explanations. The diagnosis was breast cancer.

In his mid-40s, Jeff Schmidt unexpectedly found himself in hospital. In an instant, or rather a series of strained, chest-crushing, arm-aching, jaw-clenching heart attacks, he was thrust from the life he knew as a healthy, tenacious professional and plunged into a strange new world. The journey was profound. Along the way there were many bleeps, groans, characters, and emotions, but, most significantly, there was change.