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  • Every Patient Tells a Story

  • Medical Mysteries and the Art of Diagnosis
  • By: Lisa Sanders
  • Narrated by: Lisa Sanders
  • Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (39 ratings)

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Every Patient Tells a Story

By: Lisa Sanders
Narrated by: Lisa Sanders
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Publisher's Summary

A riveting exploration of the most difficult and important part of what doctors do, by Yale School of Medicine physician Dr. Lisa Sanders, author of the monthly New York Times Magazine column "Diagnosis", the inspiration for the hit Fox TV series House, M.D.

"The experience of being ill can be like waking up in a foreign country. Life, as you formerly knew it, is on hold while you travel through this other world as unknown as it is unexpected. When I see patients in the hospital or in my office who are suddenly, surprisingly ill, what they really want to know is, "What is wrong with me"? They want a road map that will help them manage their new surroundings. The ability to give this unnerving and unfamiliar place a name, to know it - on some level - restores a measure of control, independent of whether or not that diagnosis comes attached to a cure. Because, even today, a diagnosis is frequently all a good doctor has to offer".

A healthy young man suddenly loses his memory - making him unable to remember the events of each passing hour. Two patients diagnosed with Lyme disease improve after antibiotic treatment - only to have their symptoms mysteriously return. A young woman lies dying in the ICU - bleeding, jaundiced, incoherent - and none of her doctors know what is killing her. In Every Patient Tells a Story, Dr. Lisa Sanders takes us bedside to witness the process of solving these and other diagnostic dilemmas, providing a firsthand account of the expertise and intuition that lead a doctor to make the right diagnosis.

Never in human history have doctors had the knowledge, the tools, and the skills that they have today to diagnose illness and disease. And yet mistakes are made, diagnoses missed, symptoms, or tests misunderstood. In this high-tech world of modern medicine, Sanders shows us that knowledge, while essential, s not sufficient to unravel the complexities of illness. She presents an unflinching look inside the detective story that marks nearly every illness - the diagnosis - revealing the combination of uncertainty and intrigue that doctors face when confronting patients who are sick or dying. Through dramatic stories of patients with baffling symptoms, Sanders portrays the absolute necessity and surprising difficulties of getting the patient’s story, the challenges of the physical exam, the pitfalls of doctor-to-doctor communication, the vagaries of tests, and the near calamity of diagnostic errors.

In Every Patient Tells a Story, Dr. Sanders chronicles the real-life drama of doctors solving these difficult medical mysteries that not only illustrate the art and science of diagnosis, but often save the patients’ lives.

©2009 Lisa Sanders (P)2009 Random House

Critic Reviews

"Readers who enjoy dramatic stories of doctors fighting disease will get their fill, and they will also encounter thoughtful essays on how doctors think and go about their work, and how they might do it better." ( Publishers Weekly)
"Besides her own inborn capacity for problem-solving, Sanders' experience as internist, writer, and consultant to House serves her well here, for absorbing anecdotes generously pepper the exposition." ( Booklist)

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What listeners say about Every Patient Tells a Story

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Interesting but average

Would you try another book written by Lisa Sanders or narrated by Lisa Sanders?

Possibly

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

the patient stories and diseases were incredibly interesting but the point to telling each of those stories was a bit bland.

Was Every Patient Tells a Story worth the listening time?

It was okay, i didnt mind.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Engaging and well performed.

Interesting stories with good amount of clinical content explained in easily digestible language.
Well read.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

gender isn't that hard

the book and stories are great, but the author really needs to get with it in terms of gender referencing. they insisted on using 'he' for patients and 'she' for doctors all the way through, claiming there's no alternative that's fair for all genders... bro, they/them is RIGHT there. it's not that hard.

otherwise it's a cool collection of medical info and stories.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

great and insightful read!

loved it from start to finish and there was much tibits of things to learn about medicine and doctors.

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