The Medical Student by Dermot O’Hanlon: book review

The Medical Student: A Long Slog (2017) is a fictional account of the combined true facts of the lives of four medical students set in the 1950s.

Dr. Frank Moran’s son Desmond wants to be doctor. He tries to convince his son to consider dentistry or engineering, saying that the six-year medical course is not an easy one. He then reminisces about his own life as a medical student.

Introvert Frank Moran arrives in Dublin a week before the start of his medical course, renting a room with the Ryan family. Frank meets extrovert Fitz, a fellow student and lodger. Frank and Fitz take the reader on a long, enduring tale through the medical curriculum.

Like the ‘monotonous, drudge-like routine of lecture, practical, and study’ the writing too replicates the tedium of study.

There are some brief respites from studies and examinations, such as diagnosing illnesses during hospital rounds, noticing Kathleen the radiographer, dealing with disorientated patients and death at the nursing home.

The pace of the book picks up a bit when Frank and Fitz take their obstetric bags and attend to cases at the homes of patients – expectant mothers.

It’s a bit of a relief when Frank wakes up and his son Desmond is still there, still wanting to be a medical student. The writing is all rather simplistic, and doesn’t enlighten readers on the reality of tough times in a medical teaching hospital. Nevertheless, it’s a quick and light read, and the strengths of friendships forged is well documented.

MARTINA NICOLLSis an international aid and development consultant, and the authorof:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom(2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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