Third year medical student, Raj, is sucked into his education, both clinical and otherwise. I found this very readable and interesting. I found it to be 80 percent believeable after being in healthcare for 35 years. The author knows the inside track! Not for the faint of heart. ( )

In his first year of clinical medicine, 3rd year medical student Raj shares his fears, excitement and tiredness with us. The world of practicing medicine is a far cry from the dry medical textbooks, as he experiences with seven patients he works most closely with.

From the ER to the ICU, the trauma suffered by some of the patients are real and horrific. Definitely not a read for anyone squeamish by graphic descriptions of medical procedures and results of diseases and infections on patients. The author also raises a few ethical questions in patient treatment that I can see resulting in a long discussion during a book club.

I wasn't sure about this book after being into it for 2 chapters, but gradually it drew me in and I became really interested in Raj's journey and the lives of these 7 patients. I'm glad I stuck with it because it turned out to be an interesting book, even though I could not really like Raj himself. ( )

I loved this book. In fact, I want more of the same by this author. I actually enjoyed this much more than the other medical fiction I usually read. Good characters, good story arcs, good science. Would read again! ( )

SEVEN PATIENTS could have been a very good read. It had an interesting premise: Raj, a medical student, telling of his experiences during his hospital rotation. He was assigned to several units during that time (emergency, intensive care, surgery) and each chapter was about an unusual medical case he worked with in that particular unit. He provided a lot of information about what his schedule was like and the work that went on in those units.
Unfortunately, he seems to be on an ego trip. He talked about how he didn’t have the privileged background that his fellow medical students did but that he was smarter. At one point he complained, “Nobody every gets my name right; I think it’s on purpose, but I’m not sure.” Two sentences later he introduced the other students and wrote about one “who’s name I’ve never bothered to commit to memory....”
He quickly became the hero in most of the stories. In too many of them, especially at the beginning, he painted the nurses as being rude and incompetent. He used technical words and initials all the time. While there is a list of the acronyms at the end of the book, it got tiring having to check them out so frequently. Most were not that important to the plot. If the book was aimed to a general readership, their use was showing off.
All the higher ups, the doctors and the Police Detective, liked him and confided in him almost immediately. One patient, who had a critical condition brought on by the negligence of an incompetent nurse (he never said what happened to her) was in the hospital for several months. When he went to visit him after three months, the patient acted like he was his best friend. The situation with that patient’s personal life happened too quickly to be believed.
I don’t believe a doctor would be working in an emergency room or intensive care unit wearing very expensive clothes and shoes.
He did provide interesting information about homeless people coming to the hospital with phony complaints to take advantage of air conditioning, the cost of medical testing and when to order them, and the way some patients and their families treat the staff, though many of those were stereotypes and unbelievable.
To further add to my feeling that this book was an ego trip, the author reviewed it on Goodreads. He gave it five stars. I’m giving it one just for the content and the author’s writing ability.
This book was a free Amazon download. ( )