Run, Don't Walk: The Curious and Courageous Life Inside Walter Reed Army Medical Center

Levine, Adele

ISBN 10: 1583335552 / ISBN 13: 9781583335550

Published by Penguin Publishing Group, 2015

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 462K_MN_H0006BNY

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Run, Don't Walk: The Curious and Courageous Life Inside Walter Reed Army Medical Center
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Publication Date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1583335552
• ISBN 13: 9781583335550
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

M*A*S*H meets Scrubs in a sharply observant, darkly funny, and totally unique debut memoir from physical therapist Adele Levine.
 
In her six years at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Adele Levine rehabilitated soldiers admitted in worse and worse shape. As body armor and advanced trauma care helped save the lives—if not the limbs—of American soldiers fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, Walter Reed quickly became the world leader in amputee rehabilitation. But no matter the injury, physical therapy began the moment the soldiers emerged from surgery.
 
Days at Walter Reed were intense, chaotic, consuming, and heartbreaking, but they were also filled with camaraderie and humor. Working in a glassed-in fishbowl gymnasium, Levine, her colleagues, and their combat-injured patients were on display at every moment to tour groups, politicians, and celebrities. Some would shudder openly at the sight—but inside the glass and out of earshot, the PTs and the patients cracked jokes, played pranks, and compared stumps.
 
With dazzling storytelling, Run, Don’t Walk introduces a motley array of oddball characters including:  Jim, a retired lieutenant-colonel who stays up late at night baking cake after cake, and the militant dietitian who is always after him; a surgeon who only speaks in farm analogies; a therapy dog gone rogue; —and Levine’s toughest patient, the wild, defiant Cosmo, who comes in with one leg amputated and his other leg shattered.
 
Entertaining, engrossing, and ultimately inspiring, Run, Don’t Walk is a fascinating look into a hidden world.

About the Author

Adele Levine, P.T. is also a lover of long distance open water swimming and late-night urban cycling.  She lives in Wheaton MD.