Show Me Your Saphenous Vein, James! I had wanted to be a doctor since graduating from elementary school; I never seriously considered anything else. I did not have any doctor role models in my immediate …
October 18, 2021
Jim Eichel went to medical school at UCSD in La Jolla and settled in the Bay Area as a family physician. He wrote about his experiences in the Reader as a doctor in the late 1990s.
Articles by Jim Eichel
Women at the Elephant Bar, Carlos Murphy’s, the Belly Up Tavern helped my career as doctor
If He Goes, I Go Too
It seemed as if everyone who worked at our local hospital knew Jake. A self-proclaimed “recovered hater of doctors,” he became a fixture, volunteering in the emergency room. The wisecracking 86-year-old’s wrinkled face, slumped shoulders, …
September 3, 2008
If You Sue Me, I Can't Be Your Physician
“The pain is in my heart. I want you to send me to a heart specialist so that I can have an angiogram and have this taken care of right away.” Stephan’s deep, subdued tones, …
June 11, 2008
Why Your Doctor’s in a Bad Mood
Managed care is forcing patients to get creative. Last year, I got a letter from an internal medicine colleague who practices just a few blocks from me. She and two other women internists took the …
April 10, 2003
As Killing as the Canker to the Rose
Melanie was 43 years old and determined. A 104-degree temperature did not keep her from going to her editing job at Blue Cross, but the mass on her left upper arm kept getting bigger and …
August 8, 2002
Malpractice from the Doc’s Point of View
WRAPPING UP A FULL WORKDAY AT 9:00 P.M., I PULLED THE LAST COUPLE OF ENVELOPES FROM MY “IN” BOX. THE HEAVY MANILA ONE PIQUED MY INTEREST, SO I OPENED IT. “Notice of Intent to Sue...” …
February 7, 2002
Irma is allergic to life
‘I NEED TO HAVE SOME TEETH EXTRACTED.” IRMA ALWAYS SPEAKS AS THOUGH EACH WORD MIGHT CONSUME THE LAST OF HER LIMITED ENERGY. “BUT I’M ALSO HAVING A PROBLEM WITH MY HEART.” Irma has never come …
December 20, 2001
I'm not God
Mt two latex-gloved fingers extended as far into Greta's vagina as they could through the tight rubbery of of her cervix, grazing the firm, smooth, slippery surface of her baby’s lowest part, but I could …
August 30, 2001
Environment of Mistrust
As I was completing my instructions to a diminutive 70-year-old Filipino gentleman with congestive heart failure, a knock at the door cut me short. “A patient is having a seizure.” Jo, a medical assistant with …
April 12, 2001