Doctors..!!

I had been reading the book Doctors by Erich Segal since my vacation started. It has been a completely different experience reading about the lives of students in med school, for I didn't have the slightest idea about medical profession. I confess that I haven't become any better after reading the book, but at least now I know what goes inside the mind of a doctor, and how much they suffer before they actually become doctors. This suffering is more of mental, though it involves physically exhausting themselves as well. The book narrates the story of Barney Livingston, and the beautiful Laura Castellano, who grow up together as best friends in Brooklyn. They go on to get admitted into the prestigious Harvard Medical School, each motivated by a different reason. The endless labs and memorising huge formulae of compounds, names of diseaes,etc lends them sleepless nights. And few of the students actually commit suicide unable to cope up with the pressure. Everything gets worse when they become doctors, Barney a psychatrist and Laura a paediatrician. Laura fails to keep up her relationship with her husband, and Barney with his girlfriend, both of them paying attention to the demands of their jobs(and of course, each other!!). But professionally both of them excels in their respective fields. Barney even goes on to write a book. Things hit rock bottom for Laura, when she gets divorced. Barney and Laura finally acknowledge the love they had for each other and marries. But the world falls apart for Barney and Laura when their child is diagonised with a disease about which both his doctor parents could be of little help. The book also traces the lives of few other doctors and involves a trial of one of them, for charges of mercy killing. A gripping account of the moral dilemmas faced by doctors, as well as the emotional stress on losing a patient,etc. are captured extremely well by the author. Well,I loved the book, but this isn't going to change my fear of going to a dentist..!!!