Her Own Medicine

Sayantani DasGupta, a young Indian American woman, entered medical school with a vision of saving lives and making the world a better place. What she found instead was a difficult path of politics, sexism, and red tape. Based on wry "field notes" she took throughout her journey in the healing profession, this enlightening story of learning to be a doctor will provoke tears, laughter, and thoughtful reflection. . . . In these pages, DasGupta's trials and tribulations--and those of her patients--are vividly rendered. Whether it is a fourteen-year-old giving birth, a terrified AIDS patient, or elderly lovebirds with a less-than-ordinary sex problem, DasGupta illuminates the miracle of life and the struggle to sustain it. Yet she also shines a penetrating light on today's medical landscape--the militarism of medicine (where the patient is often the enemy), the gender wars, and the increasingly restrictive practice of managed care. A remarkable account of medicine on the cusp of the twenty-first century, HER OWN MEDICINE is filled with wisdom and written with grace, lucid intellect, and a striking respect for life and the profession that heals it.