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Patric McDonald

Patric McDonald

About

30 years in the trenches of emergency medicine has afforded me a front-row seat at the great Medical Miscreant road show. From my early years in medical school at UCSD La Jolla, where one of our respected guest lecturers was found guilty of murdering his wife and 2 daughters - until the Michael Jackson doctor shenanigans - I've kept pretty busy tracking more than 11,000 instances of flat-out strange physician misbehavior. So I thought other folks might find the phenomenon as curious as I do.

A King Under Siege: Book One of The Plantagenet Legacy

A King Under Siege: Book One of The Plantagenet Legacy

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<p>Richard II found himself under siege not once, but twice in his minority. Crowned king at age ten, he was only fourteen when the Peasants' Revolt terrorized London. But he proved himself every bit the Plantagenet successor, facing Wat Tyler and the rebels when all seemed lost. Alas, his triumph was short-lived, and for the next ten years he struggled to assert himself against his uncles and increasingly hostile nobles. Just like in the days of his great-grandfather Edward II, vengeful magnates strove to separate him from his friends and advisors, and even threatened to depose him if he refused to do their bidding. The Lords Appellant, as they came to be known, purged the royal household with the help of the Merciless Parliament. They murdered his closest allies, leaving the King alone and defenseless. He would never forget his humiliation at the hands of his subjects. Richard's inability to protect his adherents would haunt him for the rest of his life, and he vowed that next time, retribution would be his.</p>

Story Behind The Book

In the late 1970's my classmates &amp; I showed up for an early morning neurotrauma lecture at UCSD La Jolla school of medicine. Our head injury guest speaker was to be Jeffrey MacDonald, MD, from Long Beach A note on the classroom door advised us that we could take the next hour off, because, &quot;Dr. MacDonald unfortunately cannot join us this morning. He had a pressing legal matter to tend to.&quot; The legal matter? Well, Doctor Jeffrey MacDonald had in fact murdered his wife and two young daughters, and was on trial. You may have heard the story. That incident profoundly influenced me, and from that day forward I took notes whenever I happened to witness strange doctor behavior. As an advanced emergency care provider in the state of California, I found myself taking an awful lot of notes. Not all the goofiness was murderous, or even criminal. Some of it was downright hysterical. A few years ago, I pulled a dusty briefcase out of the garage, and discovered it was literally bulging with thousands of pages of my scribblings. Thousands. And it occurred to me that maybe other people might find wacky doctor foul-ups, bloops &amp; boo-boos, as odd as I did. &quot;America's Dumbest Doctors&quot;: Ever wonder about yours? - is an edgy-humor compilation of stories, anecdotes, headlines, jokes, observations &amp; poetry. I asked nurses &amp; doctors nationwide to weigh in, and 300 of them did. My theory? Observing nutcase behavior in society is good clean fun. But when the wacko wears a lab coat, it might be wise to pay attention. I hope you find the subject matter as entertaining and enlightening as I do. Thanks.

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Reviews

<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;"><font style="color:#800000;" size="3">“From ego-errors and tomfoolery, to greed, stupidity and murder – I’ve laughed <em>and</em> cried at McDonald’s astutely biting, at times hysterical view of my peer group. Disturbing, provocative and uncomfortably funny.”<br /></font></span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-weight:normal;"><font face="Arial">Lesley Miller, MD retired (former <em>“surgeon to the stars”</em>) USC School of Medicine, Los Angeles<br /><br /></font></span></p> <p style="text-align:justify;margin:0in 0in 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#800000;font-size:11pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;">“Author McDonald breaks ranks and names names. I sincerely wish I could report that these are merely a few far-out nutcases. I honestly cannot say that. And this fact alone makes his work, regrettably, important.”</span></span></p><p></p> <p style="text-align:justify;margin:0in 0in 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';">J. William Hollingsworth, MD (Retired)</span></span></p><p></p> <p style="text-align:justify;margin:0in 0in 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';">Former Chief of Medicine, <span> </span>San DiegoVAMedicalCenter</span></span></p><p></p> <p></p>