Do No Harm
Medical students and physicians in training are often pushed to the brink, working long hours under intense pressure and scrutiny for years. In their quest to heal others, doctors’ families and friends sometimes become collateral damage as relationships are destroyed. In Do No Harm we see a fictionalized account of one surgeon whose traumatic childhood inspires him to become a doctor instead of following his heart, which is playing jazz. Michael, the doctor, is pushed to the brink emotionally and physically when trying to survive surgical internships, and once again when practicing as a burn surgeon. It’s a sobering tale of mental illness that takes readers on a deep dive into the hardened, sometimes unforgiving culture of medical training, the dysfunctional business side that follows, and the toll it all takes on the individual.
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Daniel Ochalek is an emerging author. His works include poetry, short stories, and fiction. After his youth and medical training in the Midwest, he established a surgical practice in his hometown. Daniel has recently relocated to Northern California. This distance has allowed a fresh view of those years of privileged doctor–patient relationships and has provided a rich source of characters and ideas for writing about life, death, beauty—people.