Tales My Stethoscope Told Me - Softcover

Duke, Martin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 156474258X ISBN 13: 9781564742582

Publisher: Fithian Pr, 1998

Synopsis

These short stories and descriptive vignettes bring out the human drama in the everyday life-and-death issues of cardiology. It is a book about what makes us tick.

About this title

From the Publisher:

If His Stethoscope Could Talk Cardiologist Martin Duke remembers his career in this memoir, Tales My Stethoscope Told Me, the story of his journey through medical school, hospital training, army service, and thirty years of cardiology practice in a small New England community. Not a flamboyant tale of heroic deeds, Tales My Stethoscope Told Me is, rather, a recollection of seemingly ordinary moments that, upon reflection, turn out to be most extraordinary.

Dr. Duke spent most of his practicing years in Manchester, Connecticut, where it was possible for him to know both his patients and their community intimately. As implied in the title, an important part of that practice--and of his memoir--consisted in listening to his patients--to their chests, certainly, but also to their voices and their minds and to that quality that we call (coincidentally) their hearts. As a result, Duke makes us readers care about these people as much as he himself did.

In his years of practice, Duke saved many lives and extended many more. His patients included people of all ages--children, young adults, young marrieds, and old couples facing mortality together. But, as is inevitable in caring for patients with dire conditions, death hovers just beyond the door, and Duke does not sugar-coat his reminiscences of it. Some patients die--suddenly, unexpectedly, as a natural result of their conditions, and because we must all die. Here, perhaps more than anywhere else, Dr. Duke's humanity and compassion are the book's strongest theme.

In addition to patients, Dr. Duke also offers tributes to colleagues from whom he learned so much, including his teachers, well-known cardiologists, physicians, and practitioners in his community, whose reminiscences are offered in their own words. Further, Duke reveals himself to be not only a knowledgeable doctor, but also a well-rounded person, and Tales My Stethoscope Told Me is not solely about medicine. He discusses his longtime interests in stamp collecting, athletic activities, and the history of medicine, and devotes more than a few pages to his family.

Dr. Martin Duke is also the author of The Development of Medical Techniques and Treatments: From Leeches to Heart Surgery, a book for nonprofessional and general medical audiences, and contributed a chapter to the Doctors' Guide to Better Tennis and Health. He has also published over eighty medical and non-medical articles, and has served on the editorial board of Connecticut Medicinefor more than 25 years. He has continued his writing activities following retirement from his medical practice.

About the Author:

Martin Duke, M.D. practiced cardiology in Manchester, Connecticut. He is the author of The Development of Medical Techniques and Treatments: from Leeches to Heart Surgery. He has also contributed a chapter to The Doctor's Guide to Better Tennis and Health, and has published over 80 medical and nonmedical articles, and was on the editorial board of Connecticut Medicine for over 25 years. Now retired from active practice, he continues to write in his fields of interest.

About this edition

• Publisher: Fithian Pr
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 156474258X
• ISBN 13: 9781564742582
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 139