Ultimate Care

My writing career during my professional life as a cardiologist was limited to submissions to local newspapers of short essays of varied subjects such as: "Exchange Students," a life-changing experience for our family, and funny anecdotes while traveling with the U.S. Army. I also contributed a number of scientific articles (13), which were published in national and international medical journals. In 1983, I wrote and produced a multimedia presentation for high school students that dealt with the hazards of smoking, "The American Smoke." I was awarded a humanitarian award by the Pennsylvania Affiliate of the American Heart Association for that effort. In 1986 I wrote and performed the copyrighted song, "Her Last Cigarette." My serious writing began in 1997, after my mother died and I felt compelled to tell her story. In the form of an autobiography I wrote "Doctor Life." After having her voice box (larynx) removed because of cancer at the age of 77, she begged me for 6 months to assist her in suicide. Each weekend that I would visit ended with tears and pleas for help. She was too afraid to end her life without assistance. When finally her family doctor found an anti-depressant that she could tolerate, she changed dramatically and took a new interest in life. She lived (happily) for another decade. To make it clear, when asked a year before she died if she wished to be resuscitated if her heart stopped, she consented without hesitation. If I had aided her in suicide, she and my family would have missed a decade of many joyful moments together. After multiple attempts to publish this first book were met with no interest, I concluded that I enjoyed writing and I had stories to tell that would interest others but would be better presented as a novel. My activities during the past decade in which I wrote this present novel "Ultimate Care", included: a writing conference, "The Importance of Place" Key West, FL January 2002 (3 days), the "Writers in Paradise" workshop, Key West, FL Jan-Mar 2002, a conference "Medical Fiction Writing for Physicians", Falmouth, MA, Sept 2003 (3 days), including a one-on-one session with author Tess Gerritsen, M.D. Although I temporarily retired from a cardiology practice in 2001 and devoted more time to writing, I returned to clinical practice in 2009.