The Other Side

The Other Side is a candid back porch conversation with Dr. Ralph Hudson about what he learned during his lifelong career as a physician. Known for his bedside manner, he advises "Never go into a room thinking you're some sort of godlike authority. You can be a friend." The book also exposes Dr. Hudson's time as a patient after six different hip surgeries during which time he was confined to bed for four months. "Communication is the heart of the dilemma of the doctor-patient relationship. It behooves us that when we see somebody that we are understood. You've never understood another person's hurt or bewilderment unless you've been there." His experiences as a doctor and as a patient make Dr. Hudson uniquely qualified to speak about The "Other" Side, whichever side of the doctor-patient relationship that might be. In this book he does so in a conversational style that makes you, the reader, feel like you are truly sitting on his back porch learning from his experiences.

Born and raised in Mr. Morris, Illinois, Dr. Hudson studied pre-med at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, in the U. S. Navy V-12 program. Receiving his medical degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago, he interned at Milwaukee County General Hospital, completing surgical residencies in Chicago and Maywood, Illinois. In 1958, Dr. Hudson moved to Eau Claire to join Drs. J. Birney Dibble and William H. Walter in a general surgical partnership in which he continued until his retirement in 1990. The Other Side began as memoirs of his life written for his grandchildren and turned into a book which has received praise from "both sides."