Twelve Patients: Life and Death at Bellevue Hospital (The Inspiration for the NBC

Eric Manheimer

Jul 2012 · Sold by Grand Central Publishing

About this ebook

In the spirit of Oliver Sacks and the inspiration for the NBC drama New Amsterdam, this intensely involving memoir from a Medical Director of Bellevue Hospital looks poignantly at patients' lives and highlights the complex mind-body connection.

Using the plights of twelve very different patients--from dignitaries at the nearby UN, to supermax prisoners at Riker's Island, to illegal immigrants, and Wall Street tycoons--Dr. Eric Manheimer "offers far more than remarkable medical dramas: he blends each patient's personal experiences with their social implications" (Publishers Weekly).
Manheimer is not only the medical director of the country's oldest public hospital, but he is also a patient. As the book unfolds, the narrator is diagnosed with cancer, and he is forced to wrestle with the end of his own life even as he struggles to save the lives of others.

Ratings and reviews

Dr. Eric Manheimer was the Medical Director of Bellevue Hospital in New York City. There is little he did not experience. In his book "Twelve Patients" he shares the plight of twelve of the most remarkable patients. Dr. Manheimer also shares his own medical struggle. He was diagnosed with throat cancer and was experiencing chemo through much of his narrative. Manheimer changed the name of the patients to protect their privacy. One of the patients was a Hispanic male with the same type of cancer as the author. The one that touched me the most was a girl shuffled from foster home to foster home; she felt safe at Bellevue. Each patient was important to Manheimer. It was easy to feel his compassion. I was amazed at the way he would take time to get to know the patients individually. He listened to them in a manner that not all doctors are capable of. He even traveled to Mexico with one of his patients. The good doctor expresses his opinion throughout the narrative. I was struck by his description of the plight of the immigrants. He expressed his anger that they could donate organs but could not receive transplants. This is a review of the audio version of the book "Twelve Patients". The book is read by the author Dr. Eric Manheimer. His voice, like his writing, expressed his heartfelt emotions. I am glad I read this book. It gave me a different outlook on the issue of immigration and foster homes. I admire Manheimer for his dedication to his patients.

I'm an EMT. I have seen people at their worst, and brought them to places that can bring them back up to their best. Every single person has their own, unique story, and Eric tells us this in detail, written in a blunt yet elegant manner.

After many fits and starts I can say that I am glad that this book was written. But, I must applaud the fact that it was lived most of all.

About the author

Eric Manheimer, M.D. was the Medical Director at Bellevue for over thirteen years and is a Clinical Professor at the New York University School of Medicine. He is an Internist who trained at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York in Internal Medicine. Following his Chief Residency there, he moved to Hanover, New Hampshire where he was a member of Dartmouth Medical School and the Hitchcock Clinic for many years.

He has had a long interest in international health working in Haiti and Pakistan and in medical anthropology, history, the social sciences and literature particularly of Latin America. Along with his wife Diana Taylor, who is a University Professor at New York University, Eric travels extensively in Latin America and Mexico. He has two children and one grandchild, who was born at Bellevue.