Saturday, August 08, 2020

Rising from the Dead

We tend to think of medicine as a profession that saves life. But not many of us know that countless doctors working in the medical field themselves are dead—not physically but psychologically, morally, spiritually, and even professionally. You get a glimpse of the inside world of the medical profession after you read Suzanne Humphries Rising from the Dead (2016). 

In this autobiographical account of her life, Dr. Humphries tells her story of getting trained as a nephrologist and practicing medicine at the hospital with the core value of the medical profession at the heart of her work: the safety and wellbeing of her patients. But what she witnessed at the hospital became an awakening call for her: a number of medical doctors and the hospital administration putting patient safety and wellbeing at risk while believing they were doing their best. 

Dr. Humphries tells how her efforts to do things honestly and staying true to her profession made her the target of hostility by her colleagues and employer. At the core of this hostility was her professional obligation to report adverse vaccine reactions and health effects of vaccination her patients suffered; but the medical administration did not want her to question vaccines no matter what. 

The book is written in engaging first-person narration that emanates courage, honesty, and commitment to the author’s profession of saving lives. The metaphor of rising from the dead is applied convincingly to illustrate how “gold standards” applied across medical facilities stifle real professionalism in doctors and reduce them to automatons resistant to learning and independent thought. The result is more patients left dead or injured with scars for life than saved. 

While Rising from the Dead is not a book that you can use as a health guide for treating diseases, Dr. Humphries offers a number of important hints and pearls of wisdom on the safer and more healthy approach to a number of serious diseases and health risks. What makes this book a gem, though, is its immense inspirational value that calls for waking up from the grave of ignorance and servile compliance to a new life of awareness and the courage to question.

ISBN: 9780692648186


Reposted from Word Matters!