HW 22 - Illness & Dying Book Part One

Author: Tracy Kidder

Title: Mountains Beyond Mountains

Publisher: Random House

Year Published: 2003

Precis: Growing up in a quite corky lifestyle, compared to what we like to call the "American Dream", Paul was exposed to a different take on life. Due to the experiences throughout his adolescence a thread was woven, tying together all of the crucial events and combining them to make something much greater. His take on fortune played a key role into his adulthood, shaping his view on helping the less fortunate verses making himself the one in need. (Part I - Part III)

1. "The world is full of miserable places. One way of living comfortably is not to think about them or, when you do, to send money." (Page 8) Money seems to always be our solution, Farmer proves that although money fuels a lot of our needs, patience and motivation is much more important. Farmer makes all of his patients feel as though there is hope, and with some courage their health could improve. Growing up in such a wealthy country we often forget about all of the other people on the planet. There is a huge difference between doing something physically about a problem and making a gesture. Money shouldn't be the key to sleeping better at night.
2. "As Farmer comes in through the gate, dressed in his Haiti clothes-black jeans and a T-shirt-a part of the crowd advances on him. An old man who needs money for food, a woman with a letter she wants him to take to the United States, a young man who has been seen another doctor here but wants to be examined by Farmer and is calling to him..." (Page 20) As Kidder describes it seems as though the Haitians view him as more than just a doctor but as a savior or even a god. They have respect for someone who is willing to help them in any shape or form.
3. "Wild cries erupt from the child: "Li fe-m mal, mwen grangou!" Farmer looks up, and for a moment he's narrating Haiti again. "She's crying, 'It hurts, I'm hungry? Can you believe it? Only in Haiti would a child cry out that she's hungry during a spinal tap." (Page 32) Her priority of food is out shining the current state of what is happening to her body.
4. "Many people waved to him-the lifted hand motionless, the fingers fluctuant, like the legs of insects on their backs. "Do you see how Haitians wave? Don't you love it? You dig?" he said to me, waving back with his fingers." (Page 41) There seems like a huge amount of respect coming from both parties. The tone in Farmer's voice seems to satisfied yet very humble about what he is doing. He obviously is proud of the progress he is making with people who without him probably would be dead.
5. She remembered, "I came back and P.J. was sitting in the driver's seat, holding a letter his father wrote to him when he got into medical school. It said something like, 'I just want you to know how proud I am.' And P.J. was sobbing." After I read this line I almost started crying... There was something very bittersweet about it and it seemed as though Farmer finally had got the reassurance that what he had done was remarkable.

This book unlocks a very different side to medicine. In the United States when we think of illness a lot of us see $$$$, yet Farmer has achieved quite a bit with not very much money at all. It makes you believe that when it comes to sickness we put ourselves higher on a pedestal than the rest of the world. We feel some sort of superiority to being healthy. The relationship that Farmer has with all of his patients is much more personal than most Americans could probably say about their doctors. Farmer went out of his way, up and down the mountains to make sure one of his patients was still taking his medication. Would your doctor do that for you?