The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly : A Physician's First Year

After his professional baseball career failed to launch, Matt McCarthy went to Harvard Medical School and onto a coveted residency slot in New York. But when he almost lost a patient on his first day after making what he believed to be a terrible error, he found himself facing the harsh reality of a new doctor's life--one in which even overachievers find themselves humbled, and in which med school training has little to offer in navigating the emotional roller-coaster of dealing with actual patients. Luckily for McCarthy, his second-year-resident adviser (whom he calls "Baio," owing to a resemblance to Charles in Charge-era Scott Baio) was an offbeat genius with a knack for breaking down the complicated process of treating patients. But neither doctor could offer much help to a patient named Barney, who had been living in the hospital while waiting for a new heart, and with whom McCarthy slowly befriended over the course of the year in ways that changed his perception of what it means to be a physician. Mixing the tense drama of ER with the screwball humor of Scrubs, McCarthy offers a window into hospital life that dispenses with sanctimony and self-seriousness while emphasizing the black-comic paradox of becoming a doctor- How do you learn how to save lives in a job where there is no practice? This One L for doctors will inspire and entertain physicians and patients alike.