RSJ contract lecturer writes book about doctors’ stories

Mark Bulgutch, a contract lecturer at the Ryerson School of Journalism, has launched a book about experiences from doctors that affirmed they were right to go into this career. 

The book, called “That’s Why I’m a Doctor: Physicians Recount Their Most Memorable Moments,” (external link)  was released on March 7. 

Bulgutch said he came up with the idea to write “That’s Why I’m a Doctor” after he wrote his book, “That’s Why I’m a Journalist: Top Canadian Reporters Tell Their Most Unforgettable Stories.” (external link)  Bulgutch started to think about other careers that have a similar trajectory. 

“Doctors came to my mind as people who are working in a profession that is certainly not mundane, but the stakes are high,” he said. “I knew they had stories that were interesting. That were life or death literally.” 

There are 46 stories from a diverse group of physicians in “That’s Why I’m a Doctor.” These physicians include pediatricians, general surgeons, and family doctors. 

The stories are tied together by a sense of caring, and Bulgutch hopes readers come away with a new understanding of what goes through the minds of doctors and how dedicated they have to be to do what they do. 

Bulgutch said he had a great experience writing his book, and it allowed him to talk to people who he would not otherwise have. 

Doctors are portrayed as people who have the same issues everyone else has. They encounter doubt, experience uncertainty, and deal with life and death. 

He included stories that seem like plots from television dramas where an emergency happens and a doctor rushes in to save a life. He wrote about a doctor who saved a girl impaled by a tree. 

But smaller stories are also included. One story involves a doctor who sat with a family whose mother was brain dead, and he talked with them about when to let her go. 

Bulgutch includes a doctor who separated conjoined twins brought to Canada from a country unable to do this procedure. This story focuses on the technical skill of the doctor and how fortunate people are to have access to the health care system in Canada. 

Bulgutch learned about how doctors deal with uncertainty, from the puzzles of diagnosis to medicine dosage decisions. 

He said the praise doctors have been receiving during the COVID-19 pandemic is well deserved. 

“These are dedicated people who I think we should be awfully grateful for,” he said. “My hope is when this is over, and it will be over, that we remember these people who are selfless in many cases and who make sacrifices.”