First, Do No Harm |  | Author: Lisa Belkin
Publisher: Fawcett
List Price: $7.99
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Seller: badkitty629
Rating:  18 reviews
Sales Rank: 14090
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Pages: 368
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.1
Dimensions (in): 6.8 x 4.1 x 1.2
ISBN: 044922290X
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780449222904
ASIN: 044922290X
Publication Date: March 2, 1994
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
"A powerful, true story of life and death in a major metropolitan hospital...Harrowing... An important book."
THE NEW YORK TIMES
What is life worth? And what is a life worth living? At a time when America faces vital choices about the future of its health care, former NEW YORK TIMES correspondent Lisa Belkin takes a powerful and poignant look at the inner workings of Hermann Hospital in Houston, Texas, telling the remarkable, real-life stories of the doctors, patients, families, and hospital administrators who must ask--and ultimately answer--the most profound and heart-rendng questions about life and death.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 18
One of the better books about hospitals and patients October 26, 2009
sb-lynn (Santa Barbara, California United States)
I am a big fan of medical books, with all their stories about doctors and patients. My shelves are replete with them, including books by Frank Huyler and Jerome Groopman, Jerald Winakur and Atul Gawande, just to name a few. I love stories that humanize hospitals and their staff, and make us empathize and educate us on what goes on inside those walls.
This book gets an A+ in that regard. Lisa Belkin divides her book up by months, and within those months we revisit certain patients to see their progress. We come to know and care about all of them - from the tiniest of premature babies, to those with devastating injuries and illnesses that foretell the bleakest of futures.
But this book is more than just our empathizing with these patients and learning about their treatments, it's also about finding out how the medical staff deals with all this on a regular basis. It's not only the patients we come to know and care about in this book.
In addition, there are fascinating chapters that take us inside the ethics committees that determine the future course of action for these patients, and let us know how the doctors determine when to proceed with procedures that may or may not help, and when the very real problems of hospital finances becomes intertwined with these complicated decisions.
I read this book in one sitting and it both moved me and educated me. Highly recommended.
First Do No Harm September 12, 2009
Gayle J. Eade (Christchurch, New Zealand)
This is not the sort of book I usually read. But from page one I was captivated enjoyed every page. The fact that all the patients were real people made it even more interesting. The behind the scenes accounts of ethics committees etc opens your eyes to what really goes on in hospitals, with life and death decisions. I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone.
Read This PRIOR to Commenting on the Health Care Insurance Debate August 29, 2009
Yorkie Girl (USA)
First, Do No Harm. Here we are, in August 2009, with a very heated battle going on in regards to the health insurance battle. People are worried about death panels, Nazi health care (we will be treating Nazis?), and a number of hysterical assumptions. Guess what! Death panels have existed under other names, or perhaps no names at all. Some hospitals call them Ethics Committees, when they are named. But if you are ever involved with the long-term care of someone who is critically ill, a birth defect, or a severe car accident, YOU become part of a death panel, like it or not. Through describing the life & death situations of a variety of patients, author Lisa Belkin educates us in an area a lot of what we don't want to admit to: we will all die, and someone other than ourselves could be making that decision as to when.
Understanding "The System" December 14, 2008
Mary A. (PA)
I highly recommend this book. It is a difficult book to put down. Written with amazing and factual insight into the decisions made every day at hospitals. It is an intellectual must read for people who believe there are "cut and dried" answers for patients. Lisa skillfully cut from one patient to the next, keeping you on the edge of your seat as she masterfully tells the story of each patient for whom ethical decisions had to be made. It may be eyeopening for some people to realize that when you or your loved one is hospitalized, all bets are off as to life and death decisions. You may find yourself at the mercy of the hospital ethics commitee. Welcome to the world of modern medical science.
The humanity of doctors in an often inhumane field September 3, 2008
Kathryn Esplin (USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Author Lisa Belkin did her research, in this riveting book. Many who enter the field of medicine do care about helping people; doctors do care about their patients and are frustrated by health insurance, legal concerns and concerns for the patient and their families.
Based in a hospital in Houston, where Belkin did her research, you will not put down this book.
You will feel new empathy for doctors who agonize over the end of life issues with patients and their families.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 18
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