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Sal’s little monkey brain.

   As I go through life I am constantly adding to (and slowly checking off) a Things To Do list.  Ran a marathon, check.  Skydive naked...not done yet.  This year I finished my goal of writing a quality book, meaning something I wouldn’t hesitate asking a friend or stranger to read. 

   Here’s my quip from Amazon.com:

  "The only people who think you are a doctor are you and your mom.” 

  Not exactly the warm welcome I hoped for.   But I was just a naive Wisconsin boy new to the big city.  I moved to Oakland after finishing medical school to start my surgical internship: an entire year filled with sick patients, brutal work hours, more brutal staff surgeons, and flawed attempts to maintain a long-distance relationship.  Yet, somehow, it’s a work of nonfictional comedy.

   I take on many roles throughout the story.  I’m a kid who still plays Tetris, a guy who can’t commit to his girlfriend, an untrained doctor who finds himself cutting open people’s skulls, and a fish out of water who is called to the ER to drain the blood from a cocaine-engorged penis.

   But this adventure isn’t just crazy hospital anecdotes or what it takes to become a surgeon. It's a coming of age tale about learning what it means to be a caregiver.  Sure, I worked 40 hours without sleep, but that is only one of the ways They tried to kill me.  Their real evil was crushing the enthusiasm and compassion of their trainees.  I struggled to remain a “normal” human while joining a fraternity of holier-than-thou surgeons, and nothing grounded me more than trying to cope with the illnesses within my own family.

    That crazy year at Highland Hospital taught me one thing:  Laughter is the best medicine, but surgery is a close second.

Now on Amazon, paperback or Kindle: The Year THEY Tried to Kill Me

Or start with this free, previously published, excerpt:  What Am I Doing Here?

    Cheers,

    Salvatore Iaquinta, MD

A tribute Carrie Fisher my “3 Brains” friends and I made.