Office Upstairs

Book excerpt: Charles H. Banov, gifted storyteller and physician, shares tales from over fifty years of his love affair with medicine and looks back with honesty and humor at growing up Jewish in the South and opening the first doctor's office in a tiny Texas town. His journey, from anxious medical student to respected physician and president of a major international medical association, is filled with triumphs and setbacks, humor and sadness. They include the challenge of raising a special-needs daughter, the random stroll with a woman who turned out to be Oprah Winfrey and saving lives in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Dr. Banov shares these moments and more in his absorbing, often hilarious and always uplifting memoir. Banov's intimate portraits of the teachers, fellow students and, above all, the patients who framed his career are recounted with warmth and insight, and provide a rare inside view into the making of a doctor. The drama, humor and humanity of Dr. Banov's many years as a practicing physician will enrich and inspire medical students, health care professionals and people everywhere who want to make a difference in their communities.