Book Review: Healer's Heart

 

For the rest of this beautifully written, compassionate book, she writes how her patients bring their pain, their problems, and their heartaches but also how they share their joys, successes, life lessons, and insights. 

 

Camosy wrote that within the patient-physician relationship, energy and motions flow in both directions. She writes of the parents who lost their baby to sudden infant death syndrome, yet still had enough room in their hearts to help her in her feelings of inadequacy; of a military veterans who helped her feel closer to her father after his death telling her details about Vietnam her dad never discussed; of a patient who came to the clinic for high blood pressure and returned later with homemade baked goods to brighten her hectic day. 

 

Two stories from this wonderful book stood out for me.

 

Early in her career as a Navy physician, the author cared for active duty members and their families as well as veterans. One of her patients was a seventy-nine-year-old veteran named Grumwald who was in for a follow-up on his hypertension and diabetes. He had served in France during World War II. During the checkup, the conversation comes around to his stress level from the war. With that, he said, "I think about it a lot. We were in a foxhole together when my friend Nate took an incoming round straight on." Tears welled up in his eyes as he continued to recount the incident. "It should have been me. Nate had a wife and a new baby at home. I had no one." He then looked at his wife for comfort, nodded and allowed her to continue the story for him. "He still has nightmares about it. He relives in his dreams, thrashed about in bed, and then wakes up in a sweat." It was apparent that Grunwald had PTSD. Following the exam, he agreed to see a counselor and to take medication. 

 

From this experience, Camosy was filled with a sense of gratitude that he had chosen to share the painful, well-guarded episode of his life with her.

 

Another patient, Adriana, was married to a Navy sailor serving overseas on an unaccompanied tour. She was pregnant and at every visit to the clinic, she pleaded to Camosy to please get her husband home. Unfortunately, a pregnancy is not a reason to end an overseas tour and bring the father-to-be home.

 

Early in her pregnancy, Adriana learned Camosy was a crafter. When she completed making a Raggedy Ann doll, she brought it in on her next appointment. The doll was colorful, smiling and lovely, about the size of a real baby.

 

One day Adriana called the clinic that she had not felt her baby moving all morning. She was told to come immediately to the obstetrics ward. When Camosy cannot find the baby's heartbeat, Adriana is sent to Radiology for a formal ultrasound. There is no cardiac activity and it appears the umbilical cord is wrapped around the baby's neck. The baby was dead. 

 

With the guidance of the obstetrician on duty and with heaviness in the hearts of all present, the pale limp baby comes out. When asked if she wants to see the baby Adriana she says yes. Camosy gives the little angel boy to his mother to hold. "Hello, my Jason," Adriana murmurs. Everyone in the room had tears in their eyes as they witnessed this precious life taken far too soon.

 

Adriana and her husband Robert are reunited a few days later. Adriana's handmade Raggedy Ann doll is now a symbol of their broken hearts, so they gave it to Camosy. 

 

To be sure, some of the events are sad, some uplifting, some ordinary. You will relate to the patients whose paths crossed hers. You will gain an enhanced understanding of the process of developing therapeutic relationships.

 

This beautifully, heartwarming book written book by an excellent storyteller should be in every library in their home.

 

I laughed and cried and felt reaffirmed in my approach to practicing medicine. Healer's Heart is an inspirational companion for those who aspire to heal the whole person in their full humanity, a journal of gratitude for the privilege of being a family physician. 

 ~Carlos Roberto Jaen, M.D.

 

A healing shot in the arm, this book is a must for anyone who needs a boost of joy, is in or considers any career in medicine. Healer's Heart is an inside look at the life and personalities of patients and their very dedicated doctor. It made me smile, cry, laugh, reflect and above all energizes me to work just like Dr. Camosy to improve the life of every person I encounter.

 

Healers Heart is a most pleasant read. It is reassuring and refreshing to find an individual reflecting such joy in every aspect of her profession. The stories are entirely relatable to all of our lives. And Dr. Camosy shows all of us how to respond and interact with compassion. I was sharing my enthusiasm for the book while getting my hair cut and my hairdresser stopped and ordered a copy right then and there!

 

Wonderfully enjoyable and heartwarming. Dr. Camosy illustrates how important compassion and caring are to the healing process. Good information for anyone who has ever been a caregiver or a patient. Healer's Heart contains many examples of the art and heart of medicine.

 

Pamela Camosy is a practicing family physician and writer in San Antonio, Texas. 

 

After growing up in a military family and traveling the world, she attended the University of Texas at Austin, where she received a B.A. in biology in 1976. She completed medical school at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA) in1980 as a U. S. Navy scholarship student. She spent eight years as active duty Naval physician from 1980 to 1988 and has been in civilian practice since then. In 1993, she and her family returned to San Antonio. 

 

In addition to her medical practice, she has served since 2004 as an adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at UTHSCSA. In this role, she teaches medical students in her office, in lectures and grand rounds, in free clinics, and at health fairs. Her passion is remaining joyful and creative in her profession and encouraging everyone she meets to do the same. 

 

She has been a writer of poetry, prose, plays, and music since childhood. As an adult, she has published scholarly articles in "American Family Physician" and "The Journal of Family Practice" and serves as manuscript reviewer for these journals. In the 1980s, she wrote a regular bioethics column for "The New Catholic Miscellany," South Carolina's official Catholic newspaper. In 2014, she felt called to return to creative writing pursuits and has since had poetry and prose published in literary journals. She recently completed "Healer's Heart: A Family Physician's Stories of the Heart and Art of Medicine," a book that focuses on the healing power of the physician-patient relationship.