Imagine a place where everyone knows your name, your family history - your life story? Now imagine getting to treat those same people on a daily basis in rural Canada where the need for doctors is an ever-growing concern?
These are just some of the inspirations behind a former South Delta Secondary grad's idea to edit the new book: In The Surprising Lives of Small-Town Doctors.
Paul Dhillon was class valedictorian when he graduated from SDSS in 1999. Little did he know then he would be a practicing doctor in rural and remote Saskatchewan - much less researching and editing a book on the subject.
In The Surprising Lives of Small-Town Doctors, physicians put down their stethoscopes and pick up their pens to share some of the most frightening and pivotal moments of
their careers. From making igloo house calls to bandaging animal bites to performing surgeries they are ill-equipped to do, doctors tell of the many rewards of practicing medicine in small communities.
They also detail the fears, failures and challenges of providing health care in northern and remote areas - where the need for doctors is the greatest. Collectively, these stories capture the spirit, innovation and resilience of these rural doctors and the communities they serve.
"There are physicians across the country silently sitting and listening to their patients' stories, empathizing with their pain, and then smiling at the successes of their quiet daily work," Dhillon writes in the preface of the book. "Unnoted beyond their communities, they continue silently. It was only after searching hard that I was able to find and pluck these individuals away from their work and to convince them to
write openly - to share their secret fears and their individual moments of clarity and victory over the scourge of disease and the misfortune of injury.
"Personally, I believe there is an intrinsic and therapeutic benefit to the physician as a human being to be able to express and share their thoughts with the interested public, which allows for both internal and, much needed, external reflection." In lieu of any royalty payments, the editor and the authors have agreed all such proceeds shall go to Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders.
Readers in any part of Canada can order Surprising Lives on Amazon and Indigo. It's also available at select Chapters-Indigo locations and some independent bookstores.
