I get discounted and free e-book lists daily. I never spend a lot of money, less than $5.00 per week. I was looking over the options this past Wednesday, like you do, when I saw this book. It is Chasing Rabbits by Rodolfo Del Toro and it is my favorite kind of medical non-fiction, a memoir.
And it was 99 cents.
I hit the buy now button and I was surprised that I already owned it. I was embarrassed when the site informed me that I had owned this book since February 2024.
I had never read it. School brain, you know. The book was part of my ginormous TBR pile that grows daily. But I can’t give up books entirely.
As medical memoirs go it is on the shorter side, only 220 pages. A quick read. I had time this weekend and so I decided to read it all in one go.
This story is in three parts. The beginning is what stands for present day, many years after the events of the 2nd part, and the third part picks the story back up from the first part. Rudy the doctor has an unexpectedly light afternoon before a three day weekend and his long-time secretary tells him he received an intriguing invitation from a butler.
This leads to the middle part of the book, which is the meatiest part of the book, and Rudy telling his secretary about this one rotation he had in his 4th year of medical school.
Cue the second part. The first part felt a little disjointed and rushed and I was prepared not to like the doctor. His secretary was great and is well written.
In the middle part, Rudy and his friend Mike are 4th year medical students and their planned clerkship for the last rotation of the year fell through. This was strongly hinted out because Mike’s family was rich and connected with an insurance company. This unexpected snafu was punishment for his father’s actions. I could see this but I wish that the book would have spend a little more time on this.
Because their real last rotation of the year was going to be together. In a children’s oncology ICU. With stable cast of characters, the doctor who oversees the unit, the fellow, a resident, and several nurses. And a pulmonology resident. All the nurses are named and have their own personalities. I love it when that happens. There is also Julia the supermodel who has been set up with Rudy by Mike.
There are three main children whose stories are centered in this section. Tim, the little boy with bone cancer, Megan, the little girl who has leukemia, and Maria, the ward of the state with a lost brother who has
Tim has had his lower leg amputated and a lump had been noted on his femur above his BKA. His parents were understandably concerned and he was in the hospital for a biopsy and treatment if necessary. He was waiting on biopsy results.
Megan is most concerned with being well enough for the trip to Disney land that was being planned for the children. When she is introduced, a nursing student has been assigned to restart her IV. Megan objects because the vein they want to use is unusable. Because she knows her body best she gives a tour of the most often used veins in the forearms. The nurse, not the nursing student, is successful in cannulating the vein that she indicates. This was one of my favorite passages. It is important that we give these kids who know they are sick, who know that it might not end the way everyone wants it to, agency over their body.
As Rudy and Mike leave the room, Dr. Betances is explaining to the nursing instructor that no nursing student will be starting this IV. His reasoning is that the kids have been through hell and do not need the pain from an unsuccessful needle stick. The nursing instructor just wants a body to have her students practice on and protests that the kids need new IVs so often it is a good practice place. I also liked this exchange. Dr. Betances standing up for his fragile patients. But I also disliked the nursing instructor who tantrumed off to tell on Dr. Betances. The nursing instructor does not come off looking good here.
Maria is in the isolation part of the ward because of her end-stage leukemia. She had a good attitude and a great smile. She also had a really good relationship with the main Dr. Betances. There is a back and forth about a business arrangement for having 1 medical student in her care, not 2. This was a great back and forth and you can really feel Maria here. The price of 2 medical students for the rotation is a 64 pack of crayons. As the group leaves to continue rounding, a nurse stays behind to talk to Maria.
In the next little bit, you learn about Billy, her foster brother, who was also at the farm where she was being fostered. But once the foster father died, she was sick and they were separated. He was adopted after that. Maria has been at the hospital for nearly a year. This is where it is explained that the staff takes care of all of Maria’s needs, including the non-medical ones. There are pink curtains, art supplies, and all the things to make a home for the dying little girl.
Rudy offers to talk to his friend the lawyer to search for Billy. This irritates Dr. Betances, like no one had bothered to look for Billy in the past 10 months.
The middle part is concerned with these children and their care. The nurses are caring and competent, the head doctor, Dr. Betances, is caring and giving, and the fellow teaches all that he can to the medical students.
I won’t write anymore about what life and death and bad news and good news happens in the second act. Or the third.
The best I can say is that I cried. And sometimes that is the best recommendation a book can have.
Part 2 more than made up for my perceived rushed feeling from part 1. I can understand after reading the second part, he just wanted to get into the meat of the story. I am a little less forgiving of the super model side plot, but even that has a good payoff and explanation.
You’re going to have to take my word for it.
I will read this again. I might even come to like the first part. But the second part is where the heart of the story is.
Dispatches from the Evening Shift 