La Clínica: A Doctor's Journey Across Borders (Literature and Medicine) - Hardcover

Sklar, David P.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0826345247 ISBN 13: 9780826345240

Publisher: University of New Mexico Press, 2008

Synopsis

In 1972, when the world around him was making little sense, David Sklar left in his senior year of college to volunteer at a community clinic in rural Mexico. With absolutely no medical experience beyond being accepted to medical school at Stanford, Sklar literally learned medicine by practicing it. With duties that ranged from suturing wounds and delivering babies to digging latrines to pulling teeth, his time at the clinic took him into the heart of a medical world that the sterilized walls of the twentieth century would never have shown him. The experience challenged his idealism and, ultimately, molded him into a skilled emergency physician.

Years later, deeply immersed in the stress of running the ER at the University of New Mexico Hospital and facing a divorce, Sklar decided to revisit the Mexican village and clinic that provided inspiration and grounding in the early stages of his career. Weaving together his time in Mexico, his later career, and his marriage, Sklar's memoir offers a thought-provoking meditation on the virtues of idealism in the face of the inevitable failures that haunt all human endeavors.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Sklar recalls how his earliest experiences in a remote Mexican clinic helped shape his career as an emergency physician and educator.

About the Author

David P. Sklar is associate dean of graduate medical education at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, and he served for many years as the chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at UNM Health Sciences Center. This is his first book.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0826345247
• ISBN 13: 9780826345240
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 248