Book description
The nearly 350 humorous, heartwarming, and sometimes tragic accounts
presented in William Lynwood Montell's latest book, Tales from Kentucky
Doctors, offer an unusual perspective on the culture and tradition of
Kentucky health-care practice. From the laughable to the laudable, Tales
from Kentucky Doctors present illuminating portraits of doctors and
patients, drawing stories from physicians with lifetimes of experience
serving Kentucky families. In chapter 2, doctors recall the successes
and failures that shaped their early careers. For Dr. Baretta R. Casey
of Hazard, becoming a doctor was a difficult journey. Already married
and with a child, Casey enrolled in college at age thirty, later
completed medical school, and began a successful career as a family
practitioner in the 1990s. Though patient visitations and doctors'
prescriptions are recorded on account ledgers, personal relationships
and memories are not part of medical records. The section “Personal
Practice” gives a glimpse of the intimate relationships doctors form
with their communities. “I doubt that any individual was nearer to the
family than the family doctor,” Dr. W. L. Tyler says in one story. For
many towns, family physicians were heroes. Dr. James S. Brashear relates
the challenges of practicing in Central City, a coal mining town,
recalling an incident in which he saved the lives of two miners. Handed
down to Montell in the oral tradition, the tales presented in this
collection represent every part of the state. Personal experiences,
humorous anecdotes, and local legends make it a fascinating panorama of
Kentucky physicians and of the communities they served. William
Lynwood Montell, professor emeritus of folk studies at Western Kentucky
University, is the author of several books, including Ghosts across
Kentucky and Tales from Kentucky Lawyers.
