Super old book - written in 1970. Fascinating all the same. Love seeing how far medicine has come, yet how much is still the same.

Some interesting insights into how those in the past thought that the hospital system might progress. Interesting to contrast to current practices today.

If you decide to read this book because you love Crichton's fiction, you may be either pleasantly surprised of just disappointed. Before Crichton ever created any of his now-famous fiction he was a medical student, and this book is a product of that. Taking that into consideration, it is an excellent book and gives the lay reader astute insight into what goes on in a hospital (in this case, a very good one). The five patients represent a spectrum of medical issues. Each patient frames a separate suspenseful drama as resolution is achieved.

As a long running fan of E.R., I really enjoyed this. And it was interesting to see how medicine, hospitals and even medical costs were so different in the late 60's than they are now

Interesting perspective on medicine from 50 years ago. Many of Crichton's concerns remain in effect today.

Il germoglio da cui è nata la serie E.R. Nella realtà si tratta di un lavoro di raccolta dati molto ben romanzato.

My star rating is skewed based on I didn't get what I was expecting or wanting from this book. While well-written, it just didn't hold my attention and I trudged my way through it.
I knew it was non-fiction and I was expecting a mix of the shows "ER" (which Crichton created)and the medical mysteries of "House."
Instead, Crichton chose five patients that weren't medically interesting in the least - just every day possible ailments and did absolutely nothing with the drama of seeking aid and health. Instead, he used mundane patients to spend more time illustrating the hospital system at that time.
Not only was the book grossly outdated, but just not interesting.

Διαβάστε και την ελληνική κριτική στις βιβλιοαλχημείες.

Five Patients was Crichton's first non-fiction book I read this year. He wrote four in total. I read his other two last July (Electronic Life: How to Think About Computers & Travels) and I'm still hunting down his most rare one Jasper Johns.

This book, as the title indicates tells the true stories of five patients at Massachusetts General Hospital, all admitted while Crichton was a medical student there.

This book tells Crichton's experiences as a doctor, the history of Massachusetts General Hospital, the general history of American medicine and hospitals,and of course, as I mentioned earlier, the personal stories of five patients their life and medical problems.

From the back cover's blurb:
«A construction worker is seriously injured in a scaffold collapse; a middle-aged dispatcher is brought in suffering from a fever that has reduced him to a delirious wreck; a young man nearly severs his hand in an accident; an airline traveller suffers chest pains; a mother of three is diagnosed with a life-threatening disease.»

These stories, and Crichton's experiences as a medical student and doctor in general, served as the main inspiration for his drama E.R. George Clooney was a protagonist in the 1st out of 15 seasons.

Even though I'm not a fan of medical dramas and medical non-fiction, I'm a fan of Crichton, so I ended up reading this book.
It also includes a 7-pages glossary and ten pages of bibliography, showing once more Crichton's dedication on each of his works.

I can't say I loved it, but it was certainly a great experience and of course I'm glad I have one more Crichton in my possession.

Die Vorlage für die TV-Serie "Emergency Room". Allerdings haben diese beiden Sachen - außer der Idee - nichts weiter miteinander zu tun.
Stattdessen beschreibt der Autor, der einst selbst Medizin studierte bevor er ein Bestseller-Autor wurde, wie das Leben in einer Notaufnahme ist. Zu diesem Zweck werden die Fälle von fünf verschiedenen Patienten geschildert. Neueste medizinische Entwicklungen kommen ebenso zur Sprache wie das Sozialsystem der USA. Das ganze ist in einem sehr dokumentarischen Stil geschrieben (obwohl es auch gut möglich ist, dass die Fälle in dieser Form vollständig erfunden sind.)

Zu bedenken ist: dieses Buch wurde erstmals 1970 veröffentlicht, und daher sind die "neuesten Entwicklungen" für uns gar nicht mehr so neu.

This book was not bad. It is my first Crichton non-fiction and it was fascinating. It felt a bit like a time capsule from the 1960's. His observations on socialized healthcare (we should have it) and how automation, computers and chatbots might improve medicine were very interesting considering all we have today. Yet we're still working on a central system for sharing healthcare information.

That said there is a ton of medical jargon in this book and some pretty long dry periods. On the other hand the cases he focused on and the history he explained were pretty interesting. In the 60's surgeons at Massachusetts General Hospital were able to re-attach a completely crushed hand!

I don't have a particular horse in the "is a teaching hospital a good thing" race so the latter half of the book where he talks about how having students and residents in a hospital is a good thing did get a bit boring.

A very interesting read for modern day medical students and residents. I was surprised (and also not surprised at all) by how many systemic things in medicine are the same today as they were 50 years ago. Better than the ratings on here suggest, as most reviewers are fans of Crichton's fiction who were too lazy to read what the book was about before picking it up.

The cases were commonplace and only vaguely related to the topics he chose to discuss per chapter. Additionally, the last chapter read like a long-winded essay, much like when a speaker drones on much beyond his allotted time. To be honest, by saying I "finished" this book, I mean I got to about p200 something and gave up on the last 10 pages or so because they were neither relevant to present-day medicine nor effective as a historical representation. In short, there was no point. The other chapters were somewhat interesting.

I concede that I read this book half a century too late. However, I believe Michael Crichton is more capable of writing timeless science than this books suggests.