Reviews

Reviewed by Wanda Maynard
5 out of 5 Stars

Publisher: BookSurge, LLC
http://www.booksurgepublishing.com
ISBN: 1419630547
Genre: Fiction
Subgenre: melodrama
Release date: Apr 2006
Format: Trade
Pages: 224
Price: $16.99

As the doors open to Detroit General Hospital , a captivatingly funny medical drama, with a romantic twist, and just a hint of suspense, is taking place. Dr. Grady has ten cases he has to take care of within thirty days, in order to achieve his surgical residency. Will he make it in time? This diverting soap opera will take the reader through each procedure to get the full impact of what is happening.

In the middle of all the chaos, there is a surreal mother who wants Dr. Grady to stay away from her daughter. Will he heed her forewarning or take another approach? Dr. Grady keeps jumping out of the frying pan and off the stove, instead of into the fire, with every operation that he is confronted with and keeps advancing through every emergency. In the patients' eyes, Dr. Grady becomes the hero of the day or superman. Not only a man of admirable exploits in the eyes of one, but several women, with the ability of knowing what to say or do. That advances him one step more in the game of life.

The book, appropriately titled Straightjacket , took insight from an extraordinary writer, who is also an M.D./hero, who deserves credit for the ingenuity of the outcome of this book. Nice job, Dr. Sall.

Straightjacket
Author: Richard E. Sall, MD
ISBN: 1419630547

The following review was contributed by:  NORM GOLDMAN:  Editor of Bookpleasures.        

Richard E. Sall's Straightjacket follows thirty days in the life of Dr. Joe Grady, a resident surgeon at Detroit General Hospital , who is obliged to complete ten major surgical cases within this time frame in order to gain his residency certification.

This is the punishment meted out by Dr. Frank Rizzo, also known as “little Hitler” to many of his colleagues, and the hospital's chief surgeon, as a result of Grady refusing to go along with a request made by the hospital's chief administrator, Arthur Williams, to give pain medication to a patient who was a known drug seeker. Apparently, one of Gray's colleagues had initially refused to prescribe medication after discovering during a statewide pharmacy research that the patient had 3600 hydrocodone tablets filled within a three-month period.

The patient threatened to expose his alleged ill-treatment to the press and this ruffles Williams' feathers for fear of the bad publicity this may engender. Consequently, Williams summoned Grady to his office and requested that he participate in bending the rules and giving the patient what he wants or as he explains to him, “the hospital is like McDonalds-whatever the patient wants, you give it to him.” However, as we discover, Williams ulterior motive was not exactly for humanitarian reasons, for the bad press could harm his hospital's fund raising campaign.

Straightjacket presents a candid depiction of life in a big city hospital that will surely resonate with any reader who may have spent some time as either a patient or doctor in a hospital. We also receive a poignant picture of the exhausting medical training physicians endure often extending over a period of seven to twelve years of post-bachelor-degree training.

Sall's writing style is occasionally jarring as we are given front row seats to the surgical procedures that Gray must perform during his remaining thirty days of residency. Romantic tension is thrown into the mix when Grady falls in love with the beautiful Nurse Linda Marie Jablonski, whose mother suffers from Borderline Personality Disorder. To further complicate matters, Linda's mother threatens to hire a member of the mob to knock him off if he does not stay away from her daughter. The cast of characters are easy to relate to and the insertion of black humor is at times hilarious, particularly with some of Grady's dialogue and musings.

Straightjacket succeeds as a good read enhanced by a frank look at the deficiencies of the American health system. In other words, although it may be a work of fiction, this book has a great deal more than it seems to be.

Straight Jacket

By Richard M. Sall, M.D.

As reviewed by New York Times best selling author Ellen Tanner Marsh

Welcome to the hilarious, hurly burly world of Detroit General Hospital. It’s a wild and wooly place and, be forewarned, it’s not just the hospital’s patients who need help and healing.

Thirty-two years old Joe Grady is about to finish his surgical residency and move on to bigger and better things. But his cost-conscious administrator suddenly gives him a Herculean task: he has to complete ten major cases in the next thirty days or he’ll be dismissed without certification. As if that weren’t enough, the hospital is a zoo, the nurses need to unionize and someone is going around killing patients. Lest this isn’t sufficient to distract Joe from his task, he’s also falling in love with Linda, a heartbreakingly gorgeous nurse with a dangerously demented mother.

If you love medical dramas and you’re looking for a clever, engaging read, Richard Sall’s book is exactly what the doctor ordered. Wildly funny and deeply satirical, Straight Jacket isn’t just an insightful story about the coming of age of a surgeon. It’s also about hope, love, healing and the appallingly high cost of medicine. Sall riffs on everything from malpractice to HMOs to intelligent design and even God. But his real target is the second-tier caregivers that hospitals hire to cut corners and the dumbing down of the industry. Dazzlingly written and filled with quirky characters, Straight Jacket is my prescription for one of the smartest debuts this year.