Healing the Wounds

Healing the Wounds is the most revealing book eve written by a doctor about his own profession. In it David Hilfiker breaks the silence surrounding the everyday practice of medicine and gives us a dramatically personal account of how the family doctor gets by in a world of spiraling information and high anxiety. Drawing on his years of rural and urban experience, Dr. Hilfiker lets us all know what it really feels like to be a doctor. What do you do when you make a serious medical mistake? Is it enjoyable to play God? What do you say to a patient who wants reassurance when the essence of diagnosis is uncertainty? What about money? What happens when you patient is taking forever, your waiting room’s full, and you want to get home? Dr. David Hilfiker graduated from Yale College and the University of Minnesota Medical School. He practiced medicine as a Board Certified Family Practitioner in a small town in rural Minnesota from 1975 to 1982, and now works in Washington, D.C., where he is medical director of Community of Hope Health Services and St. Joseph’s House, a shelter for homeless men with AIDS.