Cover Page; Title Page; Copyright Page; Contents; Preface; Fast Water; A Delicate Balance; On a Bad Day; Imagine That; Let's Have a Look; Heart Secrets; The Woman Who Saw the Doctor Too Much; Happy Face; Get Real; The Visit; Victory Garden; How Samuel Got Back His Poise; A Morning Wreck; Cold Bones; A Complicated Course; Afterword; Notes to the Text
Summary
On the ragged edge of medicine offers a unique and personal glimpse into a medical practice for the homeless and urban poor in Portland, Oregon. Told through 15 patient vignettes and drawn from the author's decades of experience on the front lines, this revealing memoir illuminates the impact of poverty on the delivery of health services and the ways in which people adapt and survive (or don't survive) in conditions of abuse and deprivation