Can’t do it. The author desperately needs an editor; his writing is full of snags, like a nail that needs filing. Time shifts are all over the place without adequate transitions, and the tangents! So. Many. Needless. Tangents. Further, Manheimer is preaching to a left-wing choir, assuming readers share his liberal political leanings on everything from the need for socialized medical care to a call for more lenient immigration policies. While many readers may wholeheartedly agree with Manheimer, others may be so distracted by his overt liberal agenda that they abandon the book. Manheimer intends more than 12 sharp little medical biographies. He uses each case as a springboard from an ailing individual to greater social ills. While these digressions are intended to edify, Manheimer’s impassioned asides lose urgency with unnecessary repetition.

The author is a doctor and was the head of the Bellevue Hospital in New York City for 14 years, I believe. This book dedicates a chapter each to one patient. One chapter focused on himself and his own bout with cancer. Manheimer counts himself amongst the 12 patients. He developed a squamous cell carcinoma near his throat, necessitating grueling treatment—platinum chemotherapy and radiation. His weight dropped from a healthy 155 pounds to a skeletal 123. Unable to swallow, he dripped Ensure through a line into his belly. Radiation left him too exhausted to function. Ill and depressed, he withdrew, indifferent even to his grandson’s birth. He attributes much of his recovery to wife Diana. If his suffering helps him connect to his patients, he doesn’t say so. For anyone seeking to understand medicine from the patient perspective, Twelve Patients is a must-read. Dr. Manheimer eloquently describes life and experiences inside a major public hospital in twenty-first century America. Particularly poignant are the stories that highlight the complex inter-relationship between the mind and the body and how our feelings and those of our patients dramatically affect medical outcomes." - Carol A. Bernstein, MD It's also very depressing. Most of these cases are not cured and most of these patients were victimized before they became ill. The next chapter is devoted to Tanisha, a young woman of tremendous inner strength. A lifelong foster child, she has been raped countless times, repeatedly running away from abusive families. Once, early in her life, she stayed briefly with a family who loved her. When the matriarch died, Tanisha was moved again. Manheimer sets off on a quest to find “Abuela’s” (Spanish for grandmother) extended family in the hopes that they not only recall Tanisha, but are willing to take her in. Incredibly, joyously, they remember her fondly, and despite their limited income, welcome her home.

Lerner, V.; Miodownik, C. Motor Symptoms of Schizophrenia: Is Tardive Dyskinesia a Symptom or Side Effect? A Modern Treatment. Curr. Psychiatry Rep. 2011, 13, 295–304. [ Google Scholar] [ CrossRef] [ PubMed] Manheimer and his wife, Professor Diana Taylor, are fluent Spanish speakers with a deep knowledge and interest in South American politics and culture. The couple has traveled extensively through South America and own a Mexican vacation home.This gives Manheimer ample opportunity to interact with Mexican, South American, and Dominican patients moving through Bellevue’s system. Many are undocumented, impoverished, and forced to endure abysmal working conditions. Moro, E.; Piboolnurak, P.; Arenovich, T.; Hung, S.W.; Poon, Y.-Y.; Lozano, A.M. Pallidal stimulation in cervical dystonia: Clinical implications of acute changes in stimulation parameters. Eur. J. Neurol. 2009, 16, 506–512. [ Google Scholar] [ CrossRef]

Manheimer was not only the medical director of the country’s oldest public hospital for over 13 years, but he was also a patient. As the book unfolds, the narrator is diagnosed with cancer, and he is forced to wrestle with the end of his own life even as he struggles to save the lives of others. I call shenanigans. This is the stuff you see in television shows, and it seems fairly apparent to me that an eventual screen adaptation was precisely what Manheimer was aiming at. Which he did, and congratulations. But the book is a little too full of these "amazing!" coincidences, and poorly written on top of it. Kupsch, A.; Klaffke, S.; Meissner, W.; Arnold, G.; Schneider, G.H.; Maier-Hauff, K.; Trottenberg, T. The effects of frequency in pallidal deep brain stimulation for primary dystonia. J. Neurol. 2003, 250, 1201–1205. [ Google Scholar] [ CrossRef]

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The opening chapters of Twelve Patients are compelling enough to overcome the book’s flaws. We meet Juan Guerra, a 59-year-old career criminal dying of cancer. Manheimer’s description is of a basically decent person who had little chance in life. Despite multiple incarcerations, drug problems, and terminal illness, Guerra has managed to keep his family together, including his devoted wife of 35 years. The hospital staff secures his freedom so he can go home to die. urn:lcp:twelvepatientsli0000manh:lcpdf:f345ac1a-0eeb-47ed-8e9f-792beeeab5e5 Foldoutcount 0 Identifier twelvepatientsli0000manh Identifier-ark ark:/13960/s215pn5wtcv Invoice 1652 Isbn 9781455503889 Starr, P.A.; Turner, R.S.; Rau, G.; Lindsey, N.; Heath, S.; Volz, M.; Ostrem, J.L.; Marks, W.J. Microelectrode-guided implantation of deep brain stimulators into the globus pallidus internus for dystonia: Techniques, electrode locations, and outcomes. J. Neurosurg. 2006, 104, 488–501. [ Google Scholar] [ CrossRef] [ PubMed]