An Alarming History of Famous and Difficult Patients: Amusing Medical Anecdotes from Typhoid Mary to FDR

"An Alarming History of Famous & Difficult Patients...", by Richard Gordon, NY, St. Martin's, 1997 - ISBN 0-312-15048-2 (hc), 224 pg., & 5 pg. B/W illust., & 5 pg. excellent bibliography. An author with illustrious writing BG including 30 novellas, chiefly medical topics, assuredly researched his subjects carefully before entertaining us with delightful, engaging and illuminating anecdotes of their afflictions, be real or imagined. A seasoned writer, he is able to instill humor without destroying the targets of his quill, at most merely humanizing them. We are given a table of contents, an index of 7 patient categories (Rulers, Kings/Queens, Literary, Arts, MD/RN, Commoners, & Fictional) and 31 names of well-known subjects, each dealt with in average of 6-8 pages which makes for comfortable reading. Adroitness in language is superb -- sometimes tongue in cheek but always informative, genuine, and effervescent. A medical doctor myself and privy to the cult of amorphous medical jokes generally associated with our profession, Gordon's "AHFDP..." differs by relating association of factual people to their own maladies (exceptiing Lady Macbaeth, Baron Munchausen & Sherlock Holmes). A good read for all age groups.

This is a companion book to "The Alarming History of Medicine" by the physician, writer and humorist Richard Gordon, who also authored the "Doctor in the House" series. It contains medical commentaries on 31 more or less famous people, picked (more likely than not) for the availability of their disease records than for other communalities they may have had.Medical gossip can be a lot of fun, and Gordon exploits this subject very well, adding obscure and recondite facts to what might be common knowledge. Yes, most people know about G. Washington's dentures, but it is surprising to hear about the English fad for dental implants that resulted in "barrels full of teeth" taken from US Civil War cadavers by macabre entrepreneurs and shipped to Britain, there to be sold by mail-order. Most know vaguely about "Typhoid Mary," but the story of Mary Mallon, an Irish cook, is seldom told as the medical detective account in which Dr. Geoge Soper was able to track her down by sheer obsession, luck, and statistical skills. Many know about the divine Sarah Bernhardt's leg amputation, but here the anesthetist's notes are transcribed, and the history of her injury and treatments, before and after the removal of her right leg is recounted. Napoleon's hemorrhoids at Waterloo? Hitler's missing left testicle? Queen Victoria's abscessed armpit? Probably more than one cares to contemplate; but for the inveterate gossips and trivia collectors amongst us it is a treasure of scuttlebutt, rumor and history that will be cherished. There is no index, and for a book of this type that should cost at least one star. The fair bibliography is good enough, but it doesn't make up for the absent index.