Introduction

The Hippocratic Oath

    • I solemnly pledge to consecrate my life to the service of humanity;
    • I will give to my teachers the respect and gratitude that is their due;
    • I will practice my profession with conscience and dignity;
    • The health of my patient will be my first consideration;
    • I will respect the secrets that are confided in me, even after the patient has died;
    • I will maintain by all the means in my power, the honor and the noble traditions             of the medical profession;
    • My colleagues will be my sisters and brothers;
    • I will not permit considerations of age, disease or disability, creed, ethnic origin, gender, nationality, political affiliation, race, sexual orientation, social standing or any other factor to intervene between my duty and my patient;
    • I will maintain the utmost respect for human life;
    • I will not use my medical knowledge to violate human rights and civil liberties, even under threat;
    • I make these promises solemnly, freely and upon my honor.

 Introduction

I was encouraged to write this book by friends who knew the story of my daughter, Gabriela. At first the writing was a therapeutic release for me because I had been keeping my emotions bottled up but as I got more involved with the writing my goals changed; I found I wanted to explain in detail what happened to Gabriela.

I chose to start this story with the Hippocratic oath, the oath doctors take as they enter their profession, because while most of us have heard of it few have actually read it.  If you didn’t read the whole thing, please, go back and take the time to read it so you understand what doctors aspire to. Then, as you make your way through each section of this story, you might want to come back and re-read it because it’s clear many of the doctors in this story disregarded their oath when they treated my daughter.

Although you’ll meet doctors in this story who failed miserably to provide compassionate and careful care, you’ll also meet great doctors who used all their compassion, education, and experience on each and every patient.

Writing in story form, I felt, would help get this book more broadly read and that by reading the story of Gabriela I hoped the average person would learn more about epilepsy and mental illness as well as the trials that face anyone struggling with either or both conditions. I also wanted to point out that we, as a society, fail to understand epilepsy and how complex and life altering it can be and how we fail to provide even minimally adequate care for the mentally ill.

This, then, is the story of my daughter, Gabriela and what has been the worst two years of our lives …

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  • John Warner Grayson

    WOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!