The Heart of Caring: A Life in Pediatrics

by Mark Vonnegut

Overview

Reflections from a life lived in medicine.

Pediatrician Mark Vonnegut has spent forty years treating children for coughs, fevers, ear infections, and sometimes more serious complaints. In that time he has seen the American medical system change in ways he couldn't have imagined as a medical student—some of them good, others not so good. But what hasn't changed is his commitment to his young patients, whose stories fill the pages of this book. There's Anna Maria, a little girl with an incurable case of bone cancer; Adeline, who has a syndrome so rare none of Vonnegut's fellow doctors have seen it before; Marlowe, whose life-threatening anemia is cured by his just-born baby brother.

Whether recounting the cases that have stuck with him or detailing larger changes in medicine—the privatization of health care, innovations in cancer treatment, the rise of anti-vaxxers and HMOs—Vonnegut is a personable guide through what is often seen as an impersonal system, and his stories sparkle with humanity, candor, and wry wisdom. ("In pediatrics, and most medical care," he says, "if the doctor can just shut up and listen long enough, the patient will give him the diagnosis. Unfortunately, there's not a procedure code or template for how to shut up.") Vonnegut doesn't pull any punches in his criticisms of the medical-industrial complex, but The Heart of Caring isn't a diatribe. It's the story of a life lived in medicine, with all the heartbreak, hope, and everyday heroism that entails.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781644211052
Publisher:	Seven Stories Press
Publication date:	02/01/2022
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	417,566
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

After writing The Eden Express, a memoir detailing his struggle with mental illness, Mark Vonnegut went to Harvard Medical School. He lives with his wife and son in Milton, Massachusetts, where he continues to practice primary care pediatrics.  His most recent book is Just Like Someone without Mental Illness Only More So (Delacorte Press 2010).

Table of Contents

Introduction 13

Remembering how to ride a bike 15

Grandiosity 21

Polio 1955 25

Medical Education 29

Plastic Surgery 33

A Barn in New Jersey 37

Bone Cancer, 1979 39

NICU 45

Septic Shock 49

Before HIV had a name 51

Doctor Dan 53

The Plan 59

Ebola 65

Hamburger Helper 67

Too many chromosomes 69

Pediatrics 75

Anemia 81

Brittle Bones 83

Insulin 87

Frankie 91

The Worst Mother in the World 93

When should I panic? 97

Lead Poisoning 99

The girl who was allergic to Christmas 101

The girl with one eye 105

Honduras 107

Death of an icon 113

A man steps on a nail 121

Stockholm Syndrome 127

Lost Arts 131

Not Fair 135

Pee 137

Wisdom from the Mouths of Babes 139

Earwax and Warts 141

Therapy 143

Negotiation 145

Jamal 149

The mother who wouldn't let me touch her baby 151

Notes home from school 153

Malcolm 155

Coach Smith 157

Cutting 163

Addiction 167

Divide and Conquer 173

The Cost of Not Caring 177

Haiti 181

The Table Saw and the Thumb-A Cautionary Tale 187

Marijuana is not your friend 193

The boy who could play anything 197

Social media isn't social 199

Psychiatrists by default 201

Autism 203

How psychiatric medications and therapy work 207

The myth of mental wellness 213

Burnout 215

Ulysses 219

Erectile Dysfunction 225

The Zombie Apocalypse 229

COVID-19 231

OPTIMISM 235

Acknowledgments 239

Editorial Reviews

The Heart of Caring is a manifesto for our times. Vonnegut offers a trenchant diagnosis and prognosis of our healthcare system, with prose as bracing as his observations. With years of experience as a physician—and a few as a patient—Vonnegut is ably positioned to cut through the flotsam and jetsam that passes for medical care these days. A refreshing read!”
—Danielle Ofri, MD, PhD, Clinical Professor of Medicine, NYU/Bellevue, and author of When We Do Harm: A Doctor Confronts Medical Error

"Dr. Mark Vonnegut's The Heart of Caring is not only rich with the wisdom of a beloved pediatrician, it is an honest look at the mess that insurance companies have made of our current medical care."
—Dan Wakefield, author of New York in the Fifties

"Dr. Mark Vonnegut laments the problems of today's medical system in The Heart of Caring...It's a story he tells by recalling his past patients, and his own time as a patient, with deadpan humor and irony."
—Lauren Daley, Boston Globe

“From decades in his clinic serving the front line of care of children and their families, Dr. Vonnegut has written a deeply real, wise, and hilarious book. It is an instant classic in medical literature.  His clear-eyed struggle to keep his practice healthy under a sick, ‘money comes first' giant healthcare-for-profit makes his job almost impossible.  Yet his  riveting  journey is a beacon of caring for patients in an American system that could care less—and he suggests how to fix it.”
—Samuel Shem, M.D., Professor of Medical Humanities at NYU Medical School, author of The House of God and Man’s 4th Best Hospital

"The Heart of Caring is a collection of stories from the heart of a caring physician reflecting on his forty years as a pediatrician. I too lived those forty years in medicine and this book touched a nerve and made me cry and laugh. It is a must-read for all new parents, old parents, medical students, physicians, patients, insurance companies, scientists, everyone.”
—Nancy E. Oriol, Associate Professor of Anesthesia Harvard Medical School

From the Publisher