The Sorcerer's Apprentice: Tales of the Modern Hospital

Medicine, the modern sorcerer's apprentice, has unleashed a flood of technological advances without regard for the patient, in Tisdale's view; she charges that ""the sick and suffering are forgotten so that their illnesses can be healed.'' A nurse in Oregon, Tisdale maintains that the condition of the ill and dying in our society is unnatural: they are held in a state of surrender, not permitted to understand their circumstances but merely to submit. The medical profession responds to their human needs only by the application of more machinery, asserts the author. Tisdale takes readers through a neonatal intensive-care unit, a kidney dialysis center, a burn unit, a surgery and a cancer ward, in chapters that will make the weak of stomach queasy. Important reading for those in the healing professions, the book will also interest anyone who has had a serious illness. (April 28)