Diagnosis

Solving the Most Baffling Medical Mysteries

By: Lisa Sanders

Narrated by: Lisa Sanders

Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

A collection of more than 50 hard-to-crack medical quandaries, featuring the best of The New York Times Magazine's popular Diagnosis column - now a Netflix original series

"Lisa Sanders is a paragon of the modern medical detective storyteller." (Atul Gawande, author of Being Mortal)

As a Yale School of Medicine physician, the New York Times best-selling author of Every Patient Tells a Story, and an inspiration and adviser for the hit Fox TV drama, House, M.D., Lisa Sanders has seen it all. And yet, she is often confounded by the cases she describes in her column: unexpected collections of symptoms that she and other physicians struggle to diagnose.

A 28-year-old man, vacationing in the Bahamas for his birthday, tries some barracuda for dinner. Hours later, he collapses on the dance floor with crippling stomach pains. A middle-aged woman returns to her doctor, after visiting two days earlier with a mild rash on the back of her hands. Now, the rash has turned purple and has spread across her entire body in whip-like streaks. A young elephant trainer in a traveling circus, once headbutted by a rogue zebra, is suddenly beset with splitting headaches, as if someone were "slamming a door inside his head."

In each of these cases, the path to diagnosis - and treatment - is winding, sometimes frustratingly unclear. Dr. Sanders shows how making the right diagnosis requires expertise, painstaking procedure, and sometimes a little luck. Intricate, gripping, and full of twists and turns, Diagnosis puts listeners in the doctor’s place. It lets them see what doctors see, feel the uncertainty they feel - and experience the thrill when the puzzle is finally solved.

©2019 Lisa Sanders (P)2019 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Lisa Sanders is a paragon of the modern medical detective storyteller.... But what sets her apart is her Holmes-like eye for the clues - and her un-Holmes-like compassion for those who suffer." (Atul Gawande, author of Being Mortal)

Fascinating medical mysteries

Each story is short, but you get to understand the patient and their problems. You get to see how the doctors think through the problem and try different treatments. Most of the diagnoses were diseases I had never heard of, but I did manage to solve one correctly. A fun, quick read. Highly recommend.

Outstanding

I could not stop listening to this interesting collection of medical mysteries and how they were solved. Give this to your high school or college children and they likely will want to become physicians.

The suspense of each case was very entertaining

From start to finish, I enjoyed the audio book. As a postgrad majoring in microbiology, I must say I learned a lot. Thanks Lisa!

Very informative and well documented.

I love the flow of stories. Easy to follow as I like to listen in the car while driving or at home as I work around the house and in my kitchen.

Fascinating!

"Diagnosis" is very interesting. Lisa Sanders explains things very well. She uses the correct teminology and explains what it means. Everything is accurate, as far as this nurse and biologist can tell. If it sounds like the author/narrator is shouting, remember that she is emphasizing her point and speakers have volume controls. This may go above the heads of young children, but there is no violence or sex. I think there may be a couple of curse words. I highly recommend this audiobook for any age group!

Fascinating! Inspirational! 🕊

As I listened to each story, I could envision the text written for classes for third year medical students: Diagnosis and Collaboration
It seems that’s how many tricky medical problems were solved. I was so inspired by hearing about doctors working together to solve difficult medical problems. That would be a great model for all doctors to follow.

Fun imaginative stories

The best way I can describe it is something off of a television show like House MD that may not have been the intent, and it may just be that the art of diagnosing illness is more or less what it is pro trade to a degree on those television shows. Every case in this collection played out in my mind with vivid detail the dynamics and the complicated medical jargon made this a very enjoyable, listen to.

Sometimes It's a Zebra

Sometimes the issue is totally different from the norm and thankfully some doctors will look beyond the regular diagnosis to reveal the rare oddities that disrupt lives of once healthy people. I think one of these medics said that not everything with hooves is a horse - sometimes it's a zebra.

Excellent! Great teaching.

These stories are priceless. Great reader. Appreciate the reminders not all hooves are Zebras but some are.

Great stories, captivating

Great audiobook, very interesting stories with unusually medical presentations. Great exercise for your mind especially for those interested in medical concepts. Highly recommend it