JANAC Vol. 12, No. 1, January/February 2001Media Review

Death of the Good Doctor

by Kate Scannell, MD. San Francisco, CA: Cleis Press, 1999, ISBN 1-57344-091-4.

The AIDS epidemic has presented the medical pro-fession with tremendous challenges—especially todoctors. Despite doctors’ many years of special train-ing and preparation, the same fears of AIDS present inthe general lay population have been found to existamong doctors. The resulting stress of confronting adisease they had no answers or explanation for led toburnout among many physicians directly involvedwith treating persons with HIV disease.

Death of the Good Doctor is an account of how onephysician dealt with and survived her confrontationwith the AIDS epidemic. Kate Scannell, a physician,demonstrates she is not afraid to deal with her personalturmoil in telling the story of how the stress of con-fronting AIDS has affected her. This story is told in afrank and honest manner. Anyone who has worked inthe area of HIV/AIDS treatment and care can relate toDr. Scannell’s story.

The setting for the book is the early years of theAIDS epidemic, the early 1980s. During this time, thegeneral public did not want to acknowledge the epi-demic. This book presents a brief but balanced historyof the initial response to the epidemic in the UnitedStates. The author has skillfully woven the story, pre-senting the events taking place in the political, social,and medical setting of the time. In addition, the authormoves the reader beyond the statistics and social reac-tions to HIV/AIDS to provide insight into her emo-tions in dealing with patients with HIV/AIDS, almostall of whom are dying. The author has told her ownstory about a woman who is challenged to become aphysician and then is faced with responding to the vastcomplexities of an epidemic. Her storytelling styleallows the reader to put a face on the epidemic and givemeaning to the statistics, as they are introduced to sev-eral of Scannell’s patients.

Although Scannell’s professional training has beenfocused on keeping patients alive at all costs, her workwith patients with HIV/AIDS allows her to reach apoint where she is not averse to letting her patients diewhen the time comes. This affords her patients theability to die with dignity. Scannell’s actions demon-strate and underscore the need to maintain a humanperspective in medicine, to accept that, despite the tre-mendous advance of knowledge in medical science,death is a vital and necessary part of life. By the end ofthe book, the reader is able to rejoice at the transforma-tion of the “good doctor” and embrace with delight theemergence of a doctor who is able to treat the wholepatient. This doctor is not afraid to be human in facingthe personal and professional challenges presented bythe HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Death of the Good Doctor is engaging and offers aunique perspective on the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Theauthor has truly been able to present “Lessons from theHeart of the AIDS Epidemic.” This book has beenwritten in such a way that it will be informative andenjoyable reading for health care and social serviceproviders working with persons with HIV/AIDS, aswell as any individual who has personally beenaffected by HIV/AIDS.

John R. Spann, MA

Media Review

JOURNAL OF THE ASSOCIATION OF NURSES IN AIDS CARE, Vol. 12, No. 1, January/February 2001, 87Copyright © 2001 Association of Nurses in AIDS Care