A history of medical discovery: those who discovered them, and the patients who endured them.

First Patients delves into the history of medical discoveries such as vaccination, blood transfusion, and the vectors of disease. Author Tanchanco’s prose is accessible to readers who are not in healthcare, but also not so simplistic as to miss medics and scientists as an audience. The writing is scientifically sound, which is more than one can say for many similar works.

That said, the cases here are all fairly well recorded, and I would have hoped for some lesser-known cases, something to really energise me. The author DOES delve much deeper than most into the backgrounds of the discoveries - including exploring friendships, mentors, and formative experiences of doctors and patients. Unfortunately he often errs on the side of being TOO longwinded with facts of little importance.

Does my profession colour my experience of First Patients? Perhaps. I suspect that to readers not in the medical field, or who have not read many similar books, this will be a fine read. I certainly would have enjoyed it as a first year medical student (ALERT: gift idea for your prospective medical student!). It is certainly instructive of perseverance, and I almost felt inspired to go and discover something! I say almost because, well, burnout is real.

I find the title to be misleading, though. First Patients made me expect that these recollections would pay homage to the “first patients” of these discoveries. Perhaps some of the chapters about HIV did so successfully, but mostly, chapters still revolved around the researcher.

I felt this book lacking a certain “something”, but that doesn’t mean that other readers might not find it enlightening.

This was quite an interesting book that details the story behind the discovery of some illnesses and their cures. The material is interesting and reminds me of The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett.

I believe the author got better at telling stories as he went along. The first first few chapters started off really well, but became disjointed and harder to follow as they went along. I almost put the book down a couple times.

Then, around halfway through, the stories started holding my interest. By the end of the book, I was completely engrossed.

An interesting read if you can get into it.

First Patients is a narrative of those who were first involved with a disease or treatment. The author gives a lot of background into how a treatment came about. How those involved met, what started their path-from childhood interests to fated events, what stumbling blocks were in the way and of course how they reached fruition. I found some of the narrative difficult to follow but the topic fascinating and well researched. Have you ever asked yourself, what made someone try that? to get to where we are today. This book takes a look at those answers for some medical advances- I hope he does a sequel with more medical issues.I am grateful to have received a promotional copy for review.

This book offers facts and technical details in a way which is also thoroughly entertaining. Without detracting from the seriousness of the topic or, indeed, the personal risks taken by the people involved, the author skilfully tells the story of the history of this aspect of medical science. A thoroughly accessible book, this will educate and entertain in equal measure,

This book was a very interesting and informative read. It's a collection of different TRUE stories about medical conditions and cases that ultimately prompted patients and doctors to find treatment and possibly cures for illness's that hadn't even been discovered or even named yet! It was an intriguing look into the history of medicine! I would definitely recommend it for anyone to read. Especially if you like reading stories about the inventiveness of humans, resilience, human compassion and just learning about the history and origin of facts not commonly known.

The stories of medical discoveries that have changed the face of the medicine world throughout history are often not recognized by the general public. Rod Tanchanco talks about how that fact was the start of the inspiration to write this book.
The stories in this book talk about the ordinary people that helped change the face of medicine, intentionally or not. These are not the absolute full stories of these people and discoveries, but they are extremely well-written and put together. There is also an extensive list of resources and sources listed at the end of the book that can be used to further research what might interest the readers.
Even if you don't know a lot about medicine or the medical world - this is still a really interesting book to read. It humanizes some of the medical advancements and just what these advancements meant to the people that pioneered them and the people that needed them desperately.

Highly recommend. Dr. Rod Tachanco has accomplished a rare feat; he has written a history of scientific and medical discovery that privileges the human dimension of discovery, that is, the personal stories, the emotions, the motivations, and aspirations that led men and women to seek out new treatments for diseases or to, serve as human guinea pigs for experimental drugs and procedures. As a result, the doctors, the patients, and their families come to life on these pages—the farmer who vaccinated his family members against small pox by infecting them with cow pox years before scientist realized that those who contracted and survived cow pox were immune to smallpox; the wife who badgered a surgeon to advance a new technology (the pacemaker) to save her husband’s life, the doctors who attempted (and eventually succeeded) infecting themselves with yellow fever to discover the carrier of the disease, the young mother who became the first patient treated with penicillin, and many more.

Each chapter relates the story of the doctors and the patients behind various major medical milestones, such as the development of a smallpox vaccine, the discovery and application of blood transfusion as a medical treatment, advances in malaria treatment, the discovery, manufacture, and use of penicillin in the treatment of infection, the advent of the defibrillator, and the AIDs epidemic, Although arranged chronologically according to when the medical milestone took place, the chapters can be read either in order of presentation or as discrete units.

While many may dismiss this history, thinking that they already know the stories of these discoveries, this would be a huge mistake. Since by probing "the ordeal of real people caught in unique medical dilemmas," the author has breathed life into the cold, objective accounts found in textbooks.