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If I Get to Five
A Review
By Emily Gorovsky
Adults are often thought of as the teachers and children the learners. Doctors are considered to be some of the most successful and intelligent teachers of all, curing the incurable and using the magic of medicine to heal.
Dr. Fred Epstein has treated and operated on thousands of children, raised five children of his own and mentored several surgeons-to-be during his 30-year career as a pediatric neurosurgeon. "My young patients have been my most trustworthy teachers and guides," he writes in If I Get to Five: What Children Can Teach Us About Courage and Character (Henry Holt and Company, 2003). "At critical junctures in my life, they've shown me the way toward compassion, hope, tenacity and, most of all, courage."
Dr. Epstein, who also wrote Gifts of Time, a book that discusses the surgical challenges and technological breakthroughs of neurosurgery, himself overcame discouraging learning disabilities in childhood and a lack of support while applying to medical school to become one of the leading pediatric neurosurgeons in the world.
But in late September 2001, Dr. Epstein faced possibly the greatest obstacle of his life. While riding his bike near his Connecticut home, Dr. Epstein had an accident that tore a blood vessel in his skull, putting him in a coma for close to a month, leaving his speech slurred, his right side partially paralyzed and his life forever altered.
"My job for the past year has been to rehab my body and mind," writes Dr. Epstein. "In many ways, it's been the hardest job of my life. It's given me an even deeper appreciation for the emotional and physical rigors my patients have faced all these years. This year I've had the rare opportunity to be still, to spend time at home with my family, and to reflect on what I've learned from my practice and from my patients. I've been on the receiving end of lots of lessons – some tough, some sweet."
These "tough" and "sweet" lessons form the bulk of If I Get to Five