Her Own Medicine: A Woman's Journey from Student to Doctor

A young Indian-American woman draws on her field notes and personal journals to chronicle her own odyssey through the pitfalls and landmines of medical school, describing the sexism, politics, and red tape she encountered as she pursued her dream of becoming a doctor. Original.

sGupta, a young Indian American woman, entered medical school with a vision of saving lives and making the world a better place. What she found instead was a difficult path of politics, sexism, and red tape. Based on wry "field notes" she took throughout her journey in the healing profession, this enlightening story of learning to be a doctor will provoke tears, laughter, and thoughtful reflection. . . .

In these pages, DasGupta's trials and tribulations--and those of her patients--are vividly rendered. Whether it is a fourteen-year-old giving birth, a terrified AIDS patient, or elderly lovebirds with a less-than-ordinary sex problem, DasGupta illuminates the miracle of life and the struggle to sustain it. Yet she also shines a penetrating light on today's medical landscape--the militarism of medicine (where the patient is often the enemy), the gender wars, and the increasingly restrictive practice of managed care.

A remarkable account of medicine on the cusp of th