Dr. Sherwin Nuland learns something, he has said, from each and every one of his patients.
He collects a variety of tales from the bedside, and recalls some of his most memorable patients for his new book, The Soul of Medicine.
In "The Cardiologist's Tale," for example, he remembers a patient who suffered from congestive heart failure. Dr. Nuland and his patient shared a love of books, and developed a close friendship that then complicated decision making at the end of the patient's life.
Each story — some are Nuland's own, and some are those of his colleagues — taps into multiple issues beyond medical care, from love and infidelity, to class discrimination.
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