Endorsements:

The book Mayday! by Dr. Allan Lohaus is a beautifully written gift from the soul of a man who has sailed the torturous modern journey of severe medical illness. It is filled with intelligence, warmth, wit and depth of feeling combined with a physician's perspective and intensity. By accompanying Dr. Lohaus on his quest to return from the separation of illness, we learn a great deal about the human journey -- an important lesson indeed for all of us: physicians, patients and family members alike.

I will use this book to teach my medical students and residents.

Gregory Fricchione, MD
Associate Chief of Psychiatry
Director, Division of Psychiatry and Medicine
Massachusetts General Hospital
Associate Professor of Psychiatry
Harvard Medical School

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We as educators are always looking for new ways to nurture professionalism and a greater sensitivity in our students. I strongly recommend Dr. Lohaus' book, Mayday! A Physician As Patient, as a valuable learning tool toward this goal.

Mayday! is well written and tracks the frightening progression of Dr. Lohaus' illness and recovery. Privacy issues, spirituality in medicine, and the fear and frustration of being a physician-as-patient are chronicled in a fast-paced, journal format that makes for an interesting starting point on a myriad of topics. In addition, Dr. Lohaus came and spoke to our students, bringing a personalized perspective to the story. An intelligent and poignant speaker, the students were engaged throughout the interactive experience. He is the perfect resource for conveying an essential, though difficult message to health care providers.

We used Mayday! as an educational tool for our fourth year medical students to gain a new perspective on the physician-as-patient. This book is a thought-provoking and well written testament to the courage of a man to face not only a life-threatening illness but his faith in medicine. We will continue to require it as part of our student reading.

Jim Scott, MD
Dean, School of Medicine and Health Sciences
Professor of Emergency Medicine
The George Washington University

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Dr. Allan William Lohaus, a practicing gynecologist in New Hampshire, has given us a gripping personal account of a doctor who fell sick, more properly, whose operation went bad, and whose subsequent pilgrimage back to health took months. In a rural New Hampshire hospital he had undergone an operation to remove polyps from his small intestine, but the anastomosis leaked, and numerous intraperitoneal abscesses as well as pancreatitis necessitated his transfer to to the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. He records without complaint the studied unhelpfulness of his first surgeon that offers other physicians a chance to recognize ourselves when something has gone wrong and how we deal with medical mishap.

His cri de couer merits discussion by medical students, for it exemplifies the unique problems that sick doctors face; they know so much more than other patients that they are far more troubled by their fear. Dismay and self-pity loom large in sick doctors' accounts; we do so much good that we should be spared for many years, sick doctors are sure. Unlike many other physicians, the author is a religious man sustained by faith, which gave him the hope and will to stay alive through three more drainage procedures and their accompanying surgical and nutritional predations. This brief story ends with his rebirth to life. The account is precise and invaluable as an example of what doctors are like when they are patients. Read it!

Howard Spiro, MD
Yale University, New Haven
in Connecticut Medicine
68(1):59