BOOK REVIEW
THE ROOKIE : THE BEST OF MEDICINE / THE WORST OF AIDS
AUTHOR : MARY G . BARRY MD . PUBLISHER : AMAZON / INDEPENDENTLY PUBLISHED : AUGUST 2020
Reviewed by Esther E . Costel MD
Esteemed Louisville internist Mary G .
Barry , MD has published a memoir , The Rookie : The Best of Medicine / the Worst of AIDS . The book chronicles her experiences at the renowned internal medicine training ground of the South – Grady Memorial and Emory University hospitals in Atlanta , Georgia . In 1984 , Dr . Barry was an intern at Grady / Emory . She shares her experiences in a format structured around each month of her internship year .
The book could potentially engage a large audience . In keeping with her reputation as a skilled communicator , Dr . Barry explains medical training , illnesses and procedures in terms accessible to lay readers . Her writing style is colloquial . And true to Dr . Barry ’ s editorial style at Louisville Medicine , she has an eye for irony . For instance , she is trying to comfort a Ugandan woman ill with malaria by putting her in a room that Dr . Barry thinks will be peaceful . The other patient in the room has had a stroke and is non-communicative . Instead of appreciating the quietude of the room , the malarial patient and her family are horrified that the woman has been put in that room to die .
Pre-med and medical students will get a feel for the experiences of being a young doctor in training . The exhaustingly long hours required , the terrifying necessity to make patient care decisions
with little knowledge and even less experience , the incredible anxiety associated with being grilled on medical knowledge by senior physicians , the toll the internship demands make on friendships and family life – all are lessons which aspirants may glimpse in The Rookie .
Physicians in practice will enjoy the memoir as a reminiscence of their own days in the trenches . Much of the folklore of practicing is shared . For instance , Dr . Barry ’ s resident tells her how to distinguish an unconscious patient from one who is faking it by holding the patient ’ s hand over his head and letting it drop ! And those physicians who live and work in Louisville will enjoy references to other physicians whom they know – Drs . Hiram Polk , Louis Heuser , Henry Sadlo and Sarah Cox to name a few – as well as Dr . Barry ’ s longing references to Louisville landmarks like Churchill Downs or Lakeside .
The major strength of the book is Dr . Barry ’ s honesty . The fact that novices intubate patients , perform spinal taps on patients and stick needles everywhere – pleural space , pericardium , peritoneum , large blood vessels – all with very little training- will be eye-opening to lay people . The fact that well-meaning physicians make mistakes that may be fatal , as exemplified in the death of the seizing patient whose intern forgot to reorder Dilantin on transfer , is an important acknowledgment . The fact that weary physicians sometimes callously regard patients as “ hits ” or refer to them by their disease instead of by their name is still unfortunately true . The
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