One Doctor

July 8, 2013
He was chair of medicine at Chicago’s Cook County Hospital, on which the hit TV show ER was based, and Reilly—now at New York–Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center—matches the heart-pounding pace and drama of that fictional show in this remarkable memoir. Reilly painstakingly relates his most challenging cases, beginning in the present—when he sees 19 ER patients on an average day—before backtracking to his early career at Dartmouth in 1985. That year, Reilly struggled to identify the cause of an eccentric and lovable patient’s delirium. By the time he figured it out, the patient—Fred—had died. “ealth providers still feel guilty when things go wrong,” Reilly notes of that troubling cold case, but he insists it made him a better doctor. After all, harm is inherent in the pathway to healing: “in a brave new post-Hippocratic world, medicine’s venerable first principle had become an empty shibboleth.... First, do no harm?... If we didn’t do harm, we couldn’t do good.” It’s a sobering reminder that though medicine is a science, it is not an exact one. Fast-forwarding to today, Reilly describes another wrenching struggle: making end-of-life decisions with his own elderly mother. But his book is about more than the joy of saving lives and the sadness of losing them—it’s an intimate exploration of modern medicine and the human condition. Agent: Janis A. Donnaud, Janis A. Donnaud and Associates.

March 15, 2013

Executive vice chair of medicine at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, Reilly here portrays moments of medical drama while focusing on one symbolic case. Friend and patient Fred, an engineer whose invention included the navigational device removed from Amelia Earhart's plane before her last flight, died shortly after he claimed to see angels.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2013
Reilly's medical narrative nicely intertwines true stories of challenging patientsdifficult diagnoses, tough medical and ethical decisions, and the management of critically ill peoplewith valuable lessons on doctoring and patienthood. A fever of unknown origin, profound thyroid deficiency, severe hypoglycemia, chest pain, delirium, bleeding bladder cancer, and life-threatening infection of a heart valve are some of the medical problems encountered. Reilly, a hospital physician with 40 years of experience, also recounts caring for his elderly parents. He writes about the importance of grunt work in medicine, sustained doctor-patient relationships, and clinical instinct. The doctor confesses, Over the years I've learned to listen to my gut, but that doesn't mean I can trust it. Indeed, medical decision making can be hard and hazardous. Risk and probability always factor into it. A medical problem can be handled in multiple ways, but outcomes are never guaranteed. Benefit and harm are both possibilities. Reilly admits that physicians know lots about regret but rarely discuss it. Empathy and thoughtfulnessOne Doctor has oodles of it.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)