Carrying The Black Bag: A Neurologist's Bedtime Tales by Tom Hutton, M.D.
I'm old enough to remember watching Marcus Welby, M.D. on television with my family and being riveted by the personal stories and doctor/patient relationships highlighted in this popular drama. Dr. Welby was always so insightful and wise. As soon as he arrived, carrying that black leather bag full of magical cures, you knew the patient was going to get the best care possible and all would be well. But what was most interesting was finding out that doctors possessed the same doubts and frailties that we, regular humans have and their "super powers" are really just a best guess gleaned from a long road of education and hit and miss experience. I thought Carrying the Black Bag was a good example of the doctor memoir genre. We get to see Dr. Hutton's early days as a novice resident who is also trying to make ends meet at home. We don't often think about doctor's personal lives and the financial and personal struggles with new marriages, new families, while still maintaining rigorous schedules at work. I thought it was fascinating to catch a glimpse of a young doctor's first realization of the weight of his new responsibility, symbolized by the shiny, new leather bag as it is finally placed into his hands. There are few professions where life and death are the results of work decisions and the full impact of it all on a young doctor is fascinating reading.
I thought the book was well-written, medically technical without being overly so, and maintained a folksy, home-grown quality about it, reminiscent of James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small. In fact, one of the best chapters in the book was about his beloved dog, Dice, whose goofiness and lovable personality reminds us that respect for life extends beyond humans. I loved the parade of colorful patient characters, vividly drawn by Dr. Hutton while still maintaining their dignity and the seriousness of their maladies. Funny, stubborn, and often familiar personalities are the heart of this memoir where the people, not the diseases, take center stage. Many of the vignettes cover years of patient history, beginning with the vague symptoms, following through to triumphant recovery or tragic finales. The narrative is clinical but sympathetic and deeply personal.
Carrying the Black Bag is a wonderful peek into the long career of a successful doctor whose resume is not so much filled with files of diseases he's cured as much as people who affected his life; whose humanity superseded the afflictions that changed their lives and whose courage gave hope, and a kind of peace, to those who came after them.
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