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The Patient Doctor

How one man's cancer diagnosis led to a quest to put the heart back into healthcare

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 A powerful and inspiring memoir about how one man's cancer diagnosis led to him become a doctor and advocate for change in the healthcare system.

At the age of twenty-eight, with his Beijing-based science communications business doing well and a new relationship blossoming, Ben Bravery woke from a colonoscopy to be told he had stage 3 colorectal cancer.

As a scientist, Ben understood the seriousness of his condition. Cancer had quite literally whacked him in the guts, after all. But what he didn't expect was how being a patient, and a young one at that, would make him feel. Why hadn't he been better prepared for the embarrassment and vulnerability of lying naked on the radiation table? Why wasn't he warned about the sheer number of tubes he would discover coming out of his body after surgery? Why did it feel like an imposition to ask doctors about his pain on their ward rounds? And why did he have to repeat the same information to them over and over again? During eighteen long months of treatment, including aggressive chemotherapy, Ben felt scared, overwhelmed, sometimes invisible and often alone.

As he recovered, it struck Ben that after everything he'd been through he couldn't go back to his former career. He needed a change - and he wanted to make change. He wanted to become a doctor. He passed the entrance exam and dived headfirst into the challenges of medical school - including an unrelenting timetable, terrifying ward rounds and the difficulty of maintaining compassion under pressure.

Now, driven by his experience on both sides of the healthcare system, this patient-turned-doctor gives a no-holds-barred account of how he overcame the trauma of his illness to study medicine and shares what he believes student doctors, doctors, patients and their families need to do to ensure that the medical system puts the patient at the very heart of healthcare every day.

Honest, powerful, eye-opening and sometimes heart-wrenchingly funny, this is an inspiring memoir that shows that no matter our situation we all need to be treated with care and compassion, right until the very end. Medical Professionals & Academics Health Care Inspiring Heartfelt Funny Thought-Provoking Medical Education
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Really enjoyed listening to Ben read his story. It had everything, an interesting story of his life and a fascinating insight into the patient experience of illness and the medical system as well as from the side of the clinician. So glad to have people like Ben to look after us with such care and empathy. Hopefully highlighting the issues in the system will help to bring forward changes to medical training in Australia, changes to how we care for our up and coming doctors and changes to the patient experience she they are people first and medical conditions second. Thank you Ben

So much to leave us to think about. Wonderful.

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Ben demonstrates some enviable characteristics and has made me reflect on my own career and patient interactions

Compassion

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I couldn’t stop listening to Ben’s story and am so grateful to him for sharing all he has been through so openly. There was something extra special about hearing him reading his own story and the emotion in his voice.
Sadly, Ben’s descriptions of his treatment as a Med student, his observations of compassion fatigue and burnout in others, and his experiences as a junior doctor are 100% consistent with what I have seen around me as a fellow doctor.
Ben’s insights have been hard won and they are conclusions that take some of us in healthcare many years to come to. To have reached this point so early in his medical career speaks to his character and powers of observation, along with all he learned from a very challenging patient journey of his own. I look forward to seeing where Ben’s commitment to putting the heart and humanity back in healthcare will take him.

An essential read for healthcare workers and those they serve.

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Ben Bravery has written the most detailed and accurate assessment of the inner workings of Australia's health system and the life of a junior doctor that I have seen to date. Must read for anyone considering a career in medicine, or for the parents and family members.

Crystal clear picture of our health system

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Such a good book to listen to as Dr Ben Bravery read his own words! I really enjoyed the whole patient/doctor/health system discussion. I sure would like to know things could change with Dr Bravery keep up the ideas & new ideas he has. I really loved your frankness Ben & will share this review on Twitter too!

What a health system needs is MORE Dr Ben Braverys!

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