Piermont Author to Talk Book, Survival

AWARD-WINNING JOURNALIST CHRONICLES HEALTHCARE NIGHTMARE

Robert Samuels excerpts from his new book "Blue Water, White Water" about his survival in one of America's top hospitals conscious, paralyzed and unable to communicate.  

(Read the Patch interview .)

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The OUTSIDE IN will host former New York City newsprint journalist and long term Piermont resident Robert Samuels on June 3, 2012 from 2 to 4 p.m. when he will meet the public and read passages from his new book "Blue Water, White Water". Samuels's book documents his plight for survival after he enters a local hospital emergency room complaining of muscle weakness in his left leg. By the next day he is completely paralyzed and connected to a respirator, left to communicate using only his eye movements. He was eventually diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome, an autoimmune disease in which the body mistakenly attacks it's own nervous system.  This story is an essential record of uncharted waters and should be mandatory reading for anyone in the healthcare arena.

A New York Times review by Abigail Zuger, M.D., says this story breaks the mold of just another portrait of illness. "Just when it seems impossible that any ailing person with literary inclinations could find anything new to say...yet another book comes along." Zuger's review, Sleepless, Bored and in Pain, a Patient Watched, adds, "[It's] the sketchbook of a professional observer, brisk, unsentimental, sardonic and altogether deadly." The book is filled with "tears, humor, love and triumph." Joan Dye Gussow, EdD, Professor emerita and former chair of the Nutrition Education Program at Teachers College, Columbia University, and author of Growing Older: A Chronicle of Death, Life, and Vegetable, calls Samuels' book "a riveting, vivid story." Tyler Lucas, M.D., says it's "A powerful description of genuine helplessness." Registered nurse, Peggy Whalen, says the book adds humor to a tense situation. "[It's] written with an amazing ability to portray a true, horrific story that keeps readers glued to the page and laughing at the same time." Terrance A McKeon who accessed the book through the Kindle Edition says it's an important resource for those entering the health professions. "We should all be constantly anticipating the physical and emotional needs of our patients, and this book sheds light on the powerful negative and positive impacts we can have in our short time with a patient in need."

Nursing Professor Barbara Riso says this book "should be required reading for all medical and nursing students!" She adds that it's a "must read." Zuger's Times review concludes addressing that Samuels has given readers a rare look into healthcare's inner-workings where physicians were, "a well-meaning but erratic crowd, wise and foolish in equal measure." He declares of the nursing profession that, "seldom has anyone provided a better illustration of the simultaneous power and powerlessness of that complicated profession. Mr. Samuels's good nurses struggled against the arbitrary constraints of their routines, while his bad ones drifted in a haze of marginal competence. Candy, Ingrid, Doria, Vinnie and the altogether fearsome Clare Ann - they are a terrifying, inspiring, nuanced and completely human bunch."

Samuels started writing his story when he had undergone treatment in the '80s. Although the technology may have improved since then for treating this syndrome, he suggests that patients don't fall into the pattern of thinking that doctors or nurses don't make mistakes. He advises that patients be their own advocate, or if that's not possible have someone with their best interest at heart act on their behalf.  

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For more information: 

http://bluewaterwhitewater.com/

www.TheOutsideInPiermont.com