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22 // COASTWEEKEND.COM ASTORIA WARRENTON SEASIDE KOA WILDLIFE // POP CULTURE // WORDS // Q&A // FOOD // FUN BOOKMONGER Two looks at medicine in America By BARBARA LLOYD MCMICHAEL Enjoy the Festival! 1100 NW Ridge Rd. Hammond, OR 97121 503-861-2606 AstoriaKOA.com Let’s consider American health care this week. In one of the most evoc- atively titled books you’ll ever come across, “Bleed, Blister, Puke, and Purge” focuses on the shockingly inadequate “cures” under- taken by the earliest Euro- pean immigrants to North America as they tried to deal with everything from broken bones to mental illness. Author J. Marin Younker is a Lake Forest Park (WA) writer. Her writing style reflects the decade-plus she spent working as a librarian in teen collections. The short, punchy segments in this book expose questionable medical practices begin- ning in early colonial times and extending some- times for centuries. While the wisdom shared by Native American healers was of some help in dealing with maladies endemic to North America, it was futile in combating Old World scourges like smallpox and measles. In the early United States, common medical practice might involve superstition, amputation, patent medicine or Mes- merism. Even our greatest historical fi gures couldn’t Saturday & Sunday April 29 & 30, 2017 Clam digging lessons Clam cleaning demo Clam fritter cook off Restaurant Chowder Competition Amateur Chowder Competition Beer garden Live Music & Entertainment Contests Informational Vendors K U CHEC T! OU S Something Fun for the Entire Family! Event times and locations may be altered based on clam tide approval LONGBEACHRAZORCLAMFESTIVAL.COM escape the quackery – when George Washington complained of a sore throat, his physicians applied dried beetles to his neck and drained 80 percent of his blood from his body. He did not survive the cure. Younker suggests that the American public’s demand for better medicine didn’t really come about until the protracted death of another American President, James Garfi eld. Shot by an assassin, Garfi eld lan- guished for more than two months before dying. Hind- sight reveals that it was the thoroughly inept medical attention he received following the shooting that likely killed him. Following this litany of medical malpractice, Younker concludes with a brief overview of how science, medicine, and tech- nology have coalesced to produce great gains in med- ical practice over the last century. But don’t relax just yet – her fi nal paragraph cites a 2016 study showing that approximately 250,000 patients in the United States Bleed, Blister, Puke, and Purge – J. Marin Younker Zest Books – 112 pp - $13.99 On the Ragged Edge of Medicine – Patricia Kullberg Oregon State University Press – 176 pp - $18.95 die every year due to errors in their medical treatment. “Bleed, Blister, Puke, and Purge” is not a reassur- ing book, but it is certainly an engrossing one. “On the Ragged Edge of Medicine” offers another medical perspective. This is a memoir about delivering health services to Portland’s most destitute populations. Dr. Patricia Kullberg served as medical director of the Multnomah Coun- ty Health Department for over two decades, and also worked as a primary care doctor. In this collection of essays, she refl ects on the daily interactions she had with patients whose health was compromised by poor choices, mental illness, poverty, or some combi- nation thereof. She talks about policies, red tape, rule-breaking and failure, and cops to occasionally having resorted to patient control when she ran out of options for patient care. Even if physical heal- ing didn’t happen as often as she wanted it to, she realized that sometimes the human connection she offered her patients was just as vital. “On the Ragged Edge of Medicine” demonstrates that – especially for some populations – modern medi- cine still has signifi cant lim- its. This gritty and luminous book is totally worth your attention. The Bookmonger is Barbara Lloyd McMichael, who writes this weekly column focusing on the books, authors and publishers of the Pacifi c Northwest. Contact her at bkmonger@nwlink.com SEASIDE DOWNTOWN SPRING WINE WALK Saturday May 13, 2017 3pm to 7pm Registration starts at 1pm 24 Oregon Wineries Presales available at www.seasidedowntown.com 503-717-1914
