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One of the main reasons why I picked up the book was because the main character is a lady doctor, which I could relate to. I realized later that the closer you are to reading inside your profession the closer it is you criticize something. I wonder just how sadistic they were that their dissection cadaver was filled with puncture wounds on the last day of gross anatomy. Here, although we dissect the cadavers, we never make any cut that isn't of learning value because we are taught to respect the human and bury the dead. Or maybe it was sarcasm that was lost on me. Of course it could have been hyperbole, but I really doubted it.
And yes, sometimes people bathed in blood do actually end up alive. It's one of the things I learned while I was rotating in one of the trauma centers here in the Philippines. A cut terminal extension of the external carotid, if the patient is extremely lucky, will bathe the patient in blood, but with quick vascular reconstruction, packing and cautery, can make a person lived. One of my cases here was like that. Miracles do happen. I have seen stab wounds live and die. So yes, something like multiple stab wounds (especially in the middle of dawn, on a darned Sunday drinking spree going to Monday) really do live.
What does run parallel with the profession is, that after a while in med school, after a while of treating impossible patients, even the nice ones, doctors, interns, they get dehumanized. Death is a toll way that we either hold our patients from or send them through. And the coldly impersonal touch sometimes one gets after treating patient after patient (especially the impossible ones) are depicted so well here. People don't go into the profession because of noble reasons. Hardly. Most people go because of their legacy, in this case, they go becuase of the moneY. Or maybe because of both.
AND, why the HECK do they boil BLOOD in KETTLES? Haven't they heard that warming it to body temp through body heat is better... although yes they don't have temperatures, but yeah, maybe water between blood would have been better... but direct to kettle? And that it probably denatures the RBCs hence it's not blood anymore but iron and lots of clumps? Heck, I should introduce them to dinuguan (a Filipino dish made with chicken blood mixed with vinegar and your choice of chicken or pork... don't write it off until you try it... and cooked blood with vinegar is BLACK not RED)
AND when you do CPR, you don't check for pulses at the wrist, you check for it at the carotid. Barring that, if the pulse is so weak, you check at the femoral. Any first aid lecture book would know the carotid at least.
The bad thing about the series again, is Carrie's and Nathan's personal issues with their fledgling relationship and their boyfriend girlfriend relationship. As with every other paranormal that includes romance in it, they always seem to make it a point that when one person is ready for commitment the other party isn't. Or that there are a load full of baggage in one person's side. Thankfully, it isn't the girl's side this time. You can't "hear" the guilt completely.
What I do appreciate about it is, that they did try with a doctor (an ER doctor at that, which I have experienced and definitely relate to especially since I've been to a trauma center.), that the author wasn't scared of touching sensitive details, and that the author stopped at five books. She knew when she was pushing it with three relationships, 3/4 of the story in first person view and the rest in 3rd person view, and the repetitiveness of the entire issue. (Ok, how many times can you resurrect the dead and how powerful the lead can become pushes close to Mary Sueish, but what can I say?).
As I said, I appreciate it that they finished it in time. Although I wasn't spared the repetitiveness and the melodrama, Ms. Armintrout finished it with a good and palatable ending.
And yes, sometimes people bathed in blood do actually end up alive. It's one of the things I learned while I was rotating in one of the trauma centers here in the Philippines. A cut terminal extension of the external carotid, if the patient is extremely lucky, will bathe the patient in blood, but with quick vascular reconstruction, packing and cautery, can make a person lived. One of my cases here was like that. Miracles do happen. I have seen stab wounds live and die. So yes, something like multiple stab wounds (especially in the middle of dawn, on a darned Sunday drinking spree going to Monday) really do live.
What does run parallel with the profession is, that after a while in med school, after a while of treating impossible patients, even the nice ones, doctors, interns, they get dehumanized. Death is a toll way that we either hold our patients from or send them through. And the coldly impersonal touch sometimes one gets after treating patient after patient (especially the impossible ones) are depicted so well here. People don't go into the profession because of noble reasons. Hardly. Most people go because of their legacy, in this case, they go becuase of the moneY. Or maybe because of both.
AND, why the HECK do they boil BLOOD in KETTLES? Haven't they heard that warming it to body temp through body heat is better... although yes they don't have temperatures, but yeah, maybe water between blood would have been better... but direct to kettle? And that it probably denatures the RBCs hence it's not blood anymore but iron and lots of clumps? Heck, I should introduce them to dinuguan (a Filipino dish made with chicken blood mixed with vinegar and your choice of chicken or pork... don't write it off until you try it... and cooked blood with vinegar is BLACK not RED)
AND when you do CPR, you don't check for pulses at the wrist, you check for it at the carotid. Barring that, if the pulse is so weak, you check at the femoral. Any first aid lecture book would know the carotid at least.
The bad thing about the series again, is Carrie's and Nathan's personal issues with their fledgling relationship and their boyfriend girlfriend relationship. As with every other paranormal that includes romance in it, they always seem to make it a point that when one person is ready for commitment the other party isn't. Or that there are a load full of baggage in one person's side. Thankfully, it isn't the girl's side this time. You can't "hear" the guilt completely.
What I do appreciate about it is, that they did try with a doctor (an ER doctor at that, which I have experienced and definitely relate to especially since I've been to a trauma center.), that the author wasn't scared of touching sensitive details, and that the author stopped at five books. She knew when she was pushing it with three relationships, 3/4 of the story in first person view and the rest in 3rd person view, and the repetitiveness of the entire issue. (Ok, how many times can you resurrect the dead and how powerful the lead can become pushes close to Mary Sueish, but what can I say?).
As I said, I appreciate it that they finished it in time. Although I wasn't spared the repetitiveness and the melodrama, Ms. Armintrout finished it with a good and palatable ending.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-28 09:15 pm (UTC)I try to never read a book about something I know about in case the author leaves it so obvious he/she didn't research it. This is the reason why I don't watch Cop dramas or medical dramas. They are so inaccurate. At least with mysteries I can suspend my disbelief, but most of the TV shows make so many errors I can't watch them anymore.
This is why also reading BLOOD NOIR by Laurell K. Hamilton was a trip. I know Asheville which makes the whole small town bigot over a son who he thinks is gay hilarious. I know the Grove Park Inn. And her story couldn't have happened if she had actually did the research with security at that hotel. There is no way. Hell, most of the problems Anita and Jason had at the hotel just couldn't have happened because of the way it is run much less the security. Makes it easy to snark though.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-29 12:46 pm (UTC)Haha, well I haven't read Blood Noir, as I said I don't follow Anita. I don't want to end up reading the entire series if it'll just disappoint me in the end anyway. Gah I'll be rotating in Internal Medicine soon. Goodbye book reading. I am hoping the seventh book in Meredith Gentry is a good one *sigh* it's a roller coaster ride with her. We'll see. I'm out hunting for more urban fantasy. Or chick lit. I've run through Sophie Kinsella and Jane Green chick lit is hit and miss for me. Sometimes it's okay sometimes I hate it.