Best 10 quotes of Samuel Shem on MyQuotes

At a cardiac arrest, the first procedure is to take your own pulse

I make my patients feel like they're still part of life, part of some grand nutty scheme instead of alone with their diseases. With me, they still feel part of the human race.

The delivery of medical care is to do as much nothing as possible.

The patient is the one with the disease

There is no body cavity that cannot be reached with a number fourteen needle and a good strong arm.

Yes, last year in interviewing. Empathy is when you repeat the last three words the patient says and nod your head.

Basch: So why don't you ask her out? The Runt: I'm scared she wouldn't like me and say no. -So what? What have you got to lose? -The possibility -if she says no- that she might have said yes. Whatever I do, I don't want to lose that possibility.

Gomers are human beings who have lost what goes into being human beings. They want to die, and we will not let them.

Hmm. Say, did that BMS has a hobby?' The head nurse picked up the chart, turned to the special section created by Pinkus, called 'Hobbies," and said, 'Nope. No hobby.' 'There,' said Pinkus. 'See? No hobby. He didn't have a hobby, do you understand? Do you have a hobby, Roy?' With some alarm I realized that I did not, and said so. 'You should have at least one.

The surgeon, hand tired, asked me if I'd like to take over. Foggy, I did. I got my hand around the back of the young lifeless heart and squeezed. Tough, slippery, the sinewy muscle was a leather bag, filled with blood, rolling in the steamy chest cavity, tied to the tubes of the major vessels. Why was I doing this? My hand hurt. I gave up. The heart lay like a grayish-blue fruit on a tree of bones. Sickening. The face of the BMS was blue, turning white. The gash in his chest was bright red, turning to a clotted black. We'd ruined his body, even as he'd died. As I left the room, I heard Jo yell out with crisp authority: 'Any BMS students here? This is a chance you don't get often in your training, to learn to massage the heart. Great teaching case. Come on.