Robin Cook "Playing God"

Author: Robin Cook Original title: Godplayer First edition: 1983 Medical topics: cardiac surgery, diabetes, psychiatry Description: The sixth book in Robin Cook’s series. It looked very promising. Cassi, a young doctor, is forced to switch her specialty from pathology to psychiatry due to worsening vision problems related to the diabetes she has had since childhood. In her new job, she immediately encounters patients on the so-called borderline (à la Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde). However, together with her colleague, an intern from pathology, she continues to investigate cases of SSD (Sudden Surgical Death) occurring at her hospital, involving patients on the 4th or 5th day after surgery who showed no signs of complications. Each time, however, they died during the night, and the autopsy revealed no cause. Cassi’s husband is the best surgeon in the hospital, Dr. Thomas Kingsley. He believes that priority should be given to operating on patients with a single condition, where a well-executed surgery would offer nearly a 100% chance of full recovery—he has many such patients in his private practice—which is why he performs three surgeries a day. The head of surgery’s policy, however, is different—he would like to handle many complex, interesting clinical cases, which are also valuable for students and interns—which is why he limits the number of surgeries Thomas performs. Dr. Kingsley himself, in order to function normally, needs the euphoria that comes after successful surgeries, so he relies on dexedrine, Percocet, and Talwin.  Despite a very promising start, the book completely fails to capture the atmosphere characteristic of Cook. After reading just the first 50 pages, everything becomes clear. Definitely one of this author’s least successful novels—although an undeniable strength is the wealth of medical details spanning many fields: diabetology, cardiac surgery, pharmacology, pathology, psychiatry, and finally medical ethics.