Office Upstairs: A Doctor's Journey

By Charles H. Banov

Book Overview

Banov shares tales from over fifty years of practicing medicine. Looking back with honesty and humor at growing up Jewish in the South and opening the first doctor's office in a tiny Texas town, he... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 159629504X
• ISBN13: 9781596295049
• Release Date: May 2008
• Publisher: History Press (SC)
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Physician Extraordinaire

'Office Upstairs - A Doctor's Journey', Charles H. Banov, MD. Where have all the doctors gone? One might ask this plaintively after reading Dr. Charles Banov's `Office Upstairs.' A combination of humanitarian, physician, volunteer,philosopher, and involved historian, his life of adventure includes patients,colleagues, governments and those of his own family. This is a chronicle of a man, a Jew in the changing South, and an age when iron lungs existed as did a host of physical tragedies that devastated lives. Dr. Banov's involvement and participation in dire circumstances should inspire those who choose to stand by and simply witness. When did you last feel compassion in a doctor's `practice', or vaguely remember a doctor who called you by name? They used to exist. Dr. Banov's letter to his sons, upon their medical school graduation, should be read aloud at every single medical college in this country. This book was a privilege to read; a rare glimpse of `How it was and a quiet reminder of how it should be.' It is a most moving memoir; I will not disclose what Dr. Banov wishes on his tombstone. Perhaps, The Boy Scouts of America might re-consider and forward the medal to this brilliant individual who demonstrated his innate medical skill at the age of twelve ...

The epitome of a fine memoir

I read "Office Upstairs" earlier in the year, at the same time I was reading Steve Martin's fine autobiography. I spent time with both these authors as I would imagine it might be to have a drink with them after a meal. Their histories and subject matter could not be more different, but each did an excellent job allowing me to share profound, humorous, and moving aspects of their lives. Dr. Banov's book is told in a very engaging and well-paced style that sometimes contrasts with the seriousness of his experiences. He is, no doubt, a serious physician, but in telling his story you can see how much of a 'mensch' he really is. I think young doctor's/med students should read a book or two like Dr. Banov's so they can understand the importance of perspective; both in the moment and over time.

A life of medicine, delivered with the human touch

I usually don't read memoirs, but found this one charming, and a breezy read. Dr. Charles Banov possesses a gift both generational and Southern: the ability to turn one's remembered life into an endless series of lively anecdotes. He started out in the black-bag era when specialization wasn't common and many doctors did it all. He opened his first practice during his Navy medical service, moonlighting in a jerkwater Texas town. And he's still at it a half century later, having specialized in allergies and travelled the world in the course of his practice. I found many stories here moving or funny. Funny ones: --Being entertained at a totally empty restaurant with his fiancee by a major gangster whose mouth he'd sewn up; --Treating the working girls sent to his practice by a madam in a nearby town; and --Being called to the house one day of a doyenne of Charleston society. Eighty-eight years old, she was jumping up and down on her bed stark naked, swearing repeatedly with the only two swear words she actually knew. It proved be an insulin overdose causing extremely low blood sugar, treatable with orange juice. Moving ones: --The charity case of a 3 year old girl retarded girl, until then written off to a state group home, whose mental state dramatically improved when Dr. Banov treated her asthma. She grew to lead a normal and productive life involving job, marriage and kids - a patient he still sees. --The Banovs' experience raising their autistic fourth child. Life's most difficult medical challenges do not spare doctors' families. And some of it is just plain interesting. He and his wife served as unwitting stage dressing on an espionage mission to the Soviet Union. During it he and another surgeon snuck away for an unchaperoned visit to a Soviet synagogue, where elderly congregants risked their lives to tell the doctors how Jews were persecuted there. They later asked their official guides to let them visit the synagogue, where they were greeted with a Potemkin congregation of happy, smiling congregants - all planted by the KGB. No less exciting was being kidnapped and held for ransom, along with his Merchant Marine crewmates, by Venezuelan terrorists. Banov's perspective on growing up Jewish in the South is quite absorbing, a way different perspective from the stickball-in-New-York background more common to his generation. There is virtually nothing here about HMOs, insurance companies, government regulations, malpractice lawyers or today's other grim medical realities. Quite refreshingly, this is about people. Dr. Banov possesses a certain wisdom gained from life as a doctor, one you hope all doctors have - that the human touch is the most important element of medicine, not replaceable by all the technology in the world.

Patient

During life's journey, you meet only one or two individuals who stand out above everyone else. Dr. Banov is one of these individuals. My wife was a patient of Br. Banov for +35 years. She has numerous environmental and food allergies and prior to finding Dr. Banov, she had been dismissed by two allergy specialist who has stated there was nothing they could do for her. Br. Banov literally gave her her life back. I can only describe him as the most competent and caring Physician we ever met. It was a 400 mile round trip from home to his office but a trip well worth while.

A NATURAL STORYTELLER

I am an avid reader and I rarely have a reading experience like I had as I turned each page of Dr. Banov's book. He is a storyteller who creates pictures of words as his experiences unfold on paper. Each insightful event described by Dr. Banov becomes a reality to the reader. As I read, I was filled with feelings of joy, humor, warmth, and optimism. This very humane, sensitive doctor should be teaching every young medical student how to practice medicine with humility and grace and with a sense of dignity for the human soul. This book is in my opinion a MUST READ!