America S Dumbest Doctors

National Healthcare Reform? Now that's a complex subject. But here's an idea: Why don't we just start by weeding out the lunatics? The Florida doctor who conspired with his brothers to chop off a finger with an axe, so they could collect a nifty insurance pay-off . . . The New York physician who accidently blew himself up, demolishing an entire building, to spite his divorcing wife . . . The Arizona MD who - while facing 67-counts of sexually abusing his patients - announced in court, "Okay. So I'm not exactly Dr. Marcus Welby." The East Coast doctor who stole a cadaver's hand in order to impress a topless dancer . . . Oh, we're just getting started. There are 100,000 more you might want to keep an eye on. ________________________________ "Author McDonald breaks ranks and names names. I sincerely wish I could report that these are merely a few far-out nutcases. I honestly cannot say that. And this fact alone makes his work, regrettably, important." J. William Hollingsworth, MD (Retired) Former Chief of Medicine, San Diego VA Medical Center "Disturbing, provocative and uncomfortably funny." Lesley Miller, MD, (former "surgeon to the stars") USC Medical Center, L.A. __________________________________ Patrick McDonald is a graduate of UCSD School of Medicine, La Jolla, original EMS program. He was appointed the first EMS supervisor for the city of San Diego under Mayor (and then governor) Pete Wilson's administration; was a coauthor of the National Waterpark Lifeguard Training Manual; a set medic on such movies as Planet of the Apes; has provided medical services for entertainers such as Engelbert Humperdinck and the Commodores. For three decades this author and guest speaker has collected thousands of outlandish physician stories. He writes, "I waited 25 years for someone else to do this. The fact is, no profession in America spawns more outright lunacy. And we thought you might like to know a little more about it." _________________________________ For more on the fascinating subject of doctor shenanigans, come visit our website, where you will learn all about your own "Dumb Doctor" story, money-making opportunities. We are gathering nutty cases for the next book, due out in the Spring, 2010. Why not join the fun? www.medicalmaniacs.com

An obsessive true crime investigation of a bizarre and unlikely perpetrator, who’s serving the opioid epidemic’s longest term for illegal prescriptions — four life sentences Written in the tradition of I'll Be Gone in the Dark and True Crime Addict, combining Dopesick's heart rending portrayal of the epidemic's victims with Empire of Pain's examination of its perpetrators This haunting and propulsive debut follows a journalist’s years-long investigation into his father's old classmate: former high school valedictorian Paul Volkman, who once seemed destined for greatness after earning his MD and his PhD from the prestigious University of Chicago, but is now serving four consecutive life sentences at a federal prison in Arizona. Volkman was the central figure in a massive “pill mill” scheme in southern Ohio. His pain clinics accepted only cash, employed armed guards, and dispensed a torrent of opioid painkillers and other controlled substances. For nearly three years, Volkman remained in business despite raids by law enforcement and complaints from patients’ family members. Prosecutors would ultimately link him to the overdose deaths of 13 patients, though investigators explored his ties to at least 20 other deaths. This groundbreaking book is based on 12 years of correspondence and interviews with Volkman. Eil also traveled to 19 states, interviewed more than 150 people, and filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Drug Enforcement Administration that led to the release of nearly 20,000 pages of trial evidence. The American opioid epidemic is, like this book, a true crime story. Through this one doctor’s story, an era of unfathomable tragedy is brought down to a tangible, and devastating, human scale.

This book tells the stranger-than-fiction story of how a poor white family from Indiana was scapegoated into prominence as America's "worst" family by the eugenics movement in the early twentieth century, then "reinvented" in the 1970s as part of a vanguard of social rebellion. In what becomes a profoundly unsettling counter-history of the United States, Nathaniel Deutsch traces how the Ishmaels, whose patriarch fought in the Revolutionary War, were discovered in the slums of Indianapolis in the 1870s and became a symbol for all that was wrong with the urban poor. The Ishmaels, actually white Christians, were later celebrated in the 1970s as the founders of the country's first African American Muslim community. This bizarre and fascinating saga reveals how class, race, religion, and science have shaped the nation's history and myths.

From a leading addiction expert, a desperately needed medical guide to understanding, treating, and finally defeating opioid use disorder Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 50, claiming more lives than the AIDs epidemic did at its peak. Opioid abuse accounts for two-thirds of these overdoses, with over 100 Americans dying from opioid overdoses every day. Now Overcoming Opioid Addiction provides a comprehensive medical guide for opioid use disorder (OUD) sufferers, their loved ones, clinicians, and other professionals. Here is expertly presented, urgently needed information and guidance, including: Why treating OUD is unlike treating any other form of drug dependency The science that underlies addiction to opioids, and a clear analysis of why this epidemic has become so deadly The different stages and effective methods of treatment, including detoxification vs. maintenance medications, as well as behavioral therapies How to deal with relapses and how to thrive despite OUD Plus a chapter tailored to families with crucial, potentially life-saving information, such as how to select the best treatment program, manage medications, and reverse an overdose.

This book is a study of depictions of health and sickness in the early American novel, 1787-1808. These texts reveal a troubling tension between the impulse toward social affection that built cohesion in the nation and the pursuit of self-interest that was considered central to the emerging liberalism of the new Republic. Good health is depicted as an extremely positive social value, almost an a priori condition of membership in the community. Characters who have the “glow of health” tend to enjoy wealth and prestige; those who become sick are burdened by poverty and debt or have made bad decisions that have jeopardized their status. Bodies that waste away, faint, or literally disappear off of the pages of America’s first fiction are resisting the conditions that ail them; as they plead for their right to exist, they draw attention to the injustice, apathy, and greed that afflict them.

“Technologies have been shaping [our] emotional culture for more than a century, argue computer scientist Luke Fernandez and historian Susan Matt in this original study. Marshalling archival sources and interviews, they trace how norms (say, around loneliness) have shifted with technological change.” —Nature “A powerful story of how new forms of technology are continually integrated into the human experience...Anyone interested in seeing the digital age through a new perspective should be pleased with this rich account.” —Publishers Weekly Facebook makes us lonely. Selfies breed narcissism. On Twitter, hostility reigns. Pundits and psychologists warn that digital technologies substantially alter our emotional states, but in this lively look at our evolving feelings about technology since the advent of the telegraph, we learn that the gadgets we use don’t just affect how we feel—they can profoundly change our sense of self. When we say we’re bored, we don’t mean the same thing as a Victorian dandy. Could it be that political punditry has helped shape a new kind of anger? Luke Fernandez and Susan J. Matt take us back in time to consider how our feelings of loneliness, vanity, and anger have evolved in tandem with new technologies.

Immigrants often have a perspective and an attitude unique from native born citizens, driven by an ability to compare and contrast countries, the old with the new, the past with the present. Unquestionable confirmation of that is given in the pages of From Trudeau's Canada to Obama's America, a collection of email essays written from one brother to another, reflecting an abiding devotion to each other and the countries and issues which shaped them and their family's evolution from Canadian liberals to American conservatives. Dire circumstances often hone one's judgment, as these email essays, unabashedly presented from a conservative vantage point, fully reveal. They are a tour-de-force analysis of politics, public policy and personalities oriented not only to the Right, but to anyone engaged and interested in law, public policy, politics, history, economics and a myriad of other related topics.

New York Times Bestseller Finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Biography "Janice P. Nimura has resurrected Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell in all their feisty, thrilling, trailblazing splendor." —Stacy Schiff Elizabeth Blackwell believed from an early age that she was destined for a mission beyond the scope of "ordinary" womanhood. Though the world at first recoiled at the notion of a woman studying medicine, her intelligence and intensity ultimately won her the acceptance of the male medical establishment. In 1849, she became the first woman in America to receive an M.D. She was soon joined in her iconic achievement by her younger sister, Emily, who was actually the more brilliant physician. Exploring the sisters’ allies, enemies, and enduring partnership, Janice P. Nimura presents a story of trial and triumph. Together, the Blackwells founded the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children, the first hospital staffed entirely by women. Both sisters were tenacious and visionary, but their convictions did not always align with the emergence of women’s rights—or with each other. From Bristol, Paris, and Edinburgh to the rising cities of antebellum America, this richly researched new biography celebrates two complicated pioneers who exploded the limits of possibility for women in medicine. As Elizabeth herself predicted, "a hundred years hence, women will not be what they are now."