AIDS Doctors: Voices from the Epidemic: An Oral History [Kindle Edition]
Author: Ronald Bayer | Language: English | ISBN: B006Y4B1LS | Format: PDF, EPUB
AIDS Doctors: Voices from the Epidemic: An Oral History
Download AIDS Doctors: Voices from the Epidemic: An Oral History for everyone book mediafire, rapishare, and mirror link Today, AIDS has been indelibly etched in our consciousness. Yet it was less than twenty years ago that doctors confronted a sudden avalanche of strange, inexplicable, seemingly untreatable conditions that signaled the arrival of a devastating new disease. Bewildered, unprepared, and pushed to the limit of their diagnostic abilities, a select group of courageous physicians nevertheless persevered. This unique collective memoir tells their story.
Based on interviews with nearly eighty doctors whose lives and careers have centered on the AIDS epidemic from the early 1980s to the present, this candid, emotionally textured account details the palpable anxiety in the medical profession as it experienced a rapid succession of cases for which there was no clinical history. The physicians interviewed chronicle the roller coaster experiences of hope and despair, as they applied newly developed, often unsuccessful therapies. Yet these physicians who chose to embrace the challenge confronted more than just the sense of therapeutic helplessness in dealing with a disease they could not conquer. They also faced the tough choices inherent in treating a controversial, sexually and intravenously transmitted illness as many colleagues simply walked away. Many describe being gripped by a sense of mission: by the moral imperative to treat the disempowered and despised. Nearly all describe a common purpose, an esprit de corps that bound them together in a terrible yet exhilarating war against an invisible enemy.
This extraordinary oral history forms a landmark effort in the understanding of the AIDS crisis. Carefully collected and eloquently told, the doctors' narratives reveal the tenacity and unquenchable optimism that has paved the way for taming a 20th-century plague. Direct download links available for AIDS Doctors: Voices from the Epidemic: An Oral History
Download AIDS Doctors: Voices from the Epidemic: An Oral History for everyone book mediafire, rapishare, and mirror link Today, AIDS has been indelibly etched in our consciousness. Yet it was less than twenty years ago that doctors confronted a sudden avalanche of strange, inexplicable, seemingly untreatable conditions that signaled the arrival of a devastating new disease. Bewildered, unprepared, and pushed to the limit of their diagnostic abilities, a select group of courageous physicians nevertheless persevered. This unique collective memoir tells their story.
Based on interviews with nearly eighty doctors whose lives and careers have centered on the AIDS epidemic from the early 1980s to the present, this candid, emotionally textured account details the palpable anxiety in the medical profession as it experienced a rapid succession of cases for which there was no clinical history. The physicians interviewed chronicle the roller coaster experiences of hope and despair, as they applied newly developed, often unsuccessful therapies. Yet these physicians who chose to embrace the challenge confronted more than just the sense of therapeutic helplessness in dealing with a disease they could not conquer. They also faced the tough choices inherent in treating a controversial, sexually and intravenously transmitted illness as many colleagues simply walked away. Many describe being gripped by a sense of mission: by the moral imperative to treat the disempowered and despised. Nearly all describe a common purpose, an esprit de corps that bound them together in a terrible yet exhilarating war against an invisible enemy.
This extraordinary oral history forms a landmark effort in the understanding of the AIDS crisis. Carefully collected and eloquently told, the doctors' narratives reveal the tenacity and unquenchable optimism that has paved the way for taming a 20th-century plague. Direct download links available for AIDS Doctors: Voices from the Epidemic: An Oral History
- File Size: 3425 KB
- Print Length: 320 pages
- Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 1 edition (May 16, 2002)
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B006Y4B1LS
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
- Lending: Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #757,292 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #50 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Professional & Technical > Medical eBooks > Diseases > AIDS & HIV
When the AIDS epidemic first broke out in 1981, many doctors did not participate in the research, treatment, or hope for the disease. Those that did had their lives changed forever. These were the doctors who were not afraid of accepting patients whom they were not sure they could cure. This was a new and very different disease than any of these doctors had ever come in contact with, and to try and treat it was honorable and extremely optimistic. AIDS Doctors: Voices from the Epidemic is a book which captures the story of AIDS since it's very (known) existence in America from the viewpoint of AIDS doctors.
The authors Bayer and Oppenheimer interviewed 75 doctors, each with their own stories, for a total of 300 hours adding to research for the book. The doctors included researchers, doctors who treated AIDS patients, and directors of AIDS programs. Almost half of the doctors were gay, all of whom wanted to help their gay community find answers about why this epidemic was predominant in their community. The goal of Bayer and Oppenheimer was to write a book portraying the effects of AIDS on doctors, and how the doctors dealt with the epidemic on the emotional side.
The book was very emotional, with the doctors giving examples of interviews with patients which resulted in tears by both parties. Many of the doctors wrote about their patients' moving stories, while others wrote biographies. Even a few of the doctors interviewed were diagnosed with AIDS. Most of the doctors were still angry at the government and scientists for not taking a more proactive stance towards the disease when it was first introduced, and it showed through in their interviews.
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