When did you first think about writing a book? Did you always know what the story would be about?
Years ago I wrote about what it’s like to be a patient and a surgeon, about my experiences as a patient. As surgeons we try to be empathetic and compassionate and explain things, but when you’re a patient it’s totally different. And so I started writing a lot about it. And I’m someone who keeps a journal, so I wrote a lot of these things down.
I had probably written about four chapters and sent it to [a publisher] and she said, “This is incredible.” And we talked about what the book would be about.
I started telling stories about how I grew up in Philly, how I did missionary work in Haiti, how Will Smith decided to jump out of a helicopter over the Grand Canyon for his 50th birthday, and how I was responsible for building this [medical] Triage in the middle of the desert. I had to go out, explore the area, see what the terrain was like, how close we were to water, how close we were to hospitals, what we needed to take with us.
So there are two different environments: in one I had everything I needed as far as I could justify it, and in the other we brought all the equipment from America to this industrial country. [Haiti]and yet we were able to take care of everyone. These experiences, which I didn’t realize at the time, prepared me for COVID.
When I saw things like that, I said to myself, “This could be a nice story.”
And then all the adversities that await you when you become a doctor, and then a surgeon, and then a pediatric surgeon, of which there are even fewer, and even fewer, fewer female pediatric surgeons, and even fewer, fewer black pediatric surgeons. I had to tell this story.
Often times when people experience something, they never talk about it. When people talk about microaggression and unconscious or conscious bias, it’s all just words, but there’s no real story or narrative to it. So I said, “Okay, I’ll tell you what happened to me.”
Some things that have happened in my life are just unbelievable. And every day, people get away with it. That’s why dropout rates are so high, especially for black people in medicine. That’s why the percentage of black doctors in the United States is still 5% or less. Becoming a doctor and a surgeon is challenging enough, and when you add that to the mix, it’s just too much. And I wanted to talk about it and say, “But you can do it. Don’t give up.”
How important was the choice of the title of your book, “Take Care of Them Like My Own: Faith, Fortitude and a Surgeon’s Fight for Health Justice,” and the meaning behind it?
I wanted the title itself to convey a message, even if you never read the book. To me, “Take care of them as my own children” is the path to equitable care for all. The way you take care of your client, the way you take care of your colleague, the way you take care of someone who works for you or with you – is that the way you would want your daughter or your husband or your wife to be treated, someone you care about, someone in your family?
I think of some stories of young women I know who were treated in the emergency room and I ask myself, “Would you have done the same if it had been your daughter?” I know they wouldn’t have.
And then faith [part]I believe everything in my life, my steps, have been ordained by God. More than once, I have been spared life. Times when something unexpected should have happened to me did not, and every time I needed something in a certain way, there was a solution. I do not believe that things happen by chance or coincidence. For me, that is faith.
And then the resilience, that’s Philly. The resilience is Philly. That’s the perseverance, the straight-up nonsense, that’s Philly all day long.
“Take Care of Them Like My Own: Faith, Fortitude and a Surgeon’s Fight for Health Justice” will be available at major retailers, local bookstores, and online beginning August 6. A book launch with Dr. Ala Stanford will be held on Tuesday, August 6, at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. Tickets are available at ensembleartsphilly.org.