Abraham Verghese
Abraham Verghese
Abraham Vergheseis a physician-author, Professor for the Theory and Practice of Medicine at Stanford University Medical School and Senior Associate Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine. He is also the author of three best-selling books, two memoirs and a novel. In 2011, he was elected to be a member of the Institute of Medicine...
NationalityEthiopian
ProfessionAuthor
CountryEthiopia
meals
Life for the Italians was what it was, no more and no less, an interlude between meals
giving matter bleeding
No matter what ailed you, you went to see the barber surgeon who wound up cupping you, bleeding you, purging you. And, oh yes, if you wanted, he would give you a haircut and pull your tooth while he was at it.
writing cutting medicine
In writing, as in medicine, there are no short cuts. You need stamina.
uncles school role-models
Certainly when I got to medical school, I had role models of the kind of physicians I wanted to be. I had an uncle who, looking back, was probably not the most-educated physician around, but he carried it off so well.
mind bowels be-careful
Be careful! Travel expands the mind and loosens the bowels.
guilt action righteous
...guilt leads to righteous action, but rarely is it the right action.
believe cat missing
I joke, but I only half joke, that if you come to one of our hospitals missing a limb, no one will believe you till they get a CAT scan, MRI, or orthopedic consult.
thinking people scripture
I always wondered if the good people who send us bibles really think that hookworm and hunger are healed by scripture? Our patients are illiterate.
broken tasks generations
According to Shiva, life is in the end about fixing holes. Shiva didn't speak in metaphors. fixing holes is precisely what he did. Still, it's an apt metaphor for our profession. But there's another kind of hole, and that is the wound that divides family. Sometimes this wound occurs at the moment of birth, sometimes it happens later. We are all fixing what is broken. It is the task of a lifetime. We'll leave much unfinished for the next generation.
book men clothes
What did it say when a man had fewer clothes than books?
men mysterious mystery
When a man is a mystery to himself you can hardly call him mysterious.
way where-you-are knows
The only way to know where you are is by where you have just been.
giving firsts born
Being the first born gives you great patience.
years medicine suffering
We have the sense that medical students come to medicine with a great capacity to understand the suffering of patients. And then by the end of the third year they completely lose that ability, partly because we teach them the specialized language of medicine.