My collection of medical books: a family legacy

When we hold a book and read its lines, we're not just looking at a collection of pages with printed ink; we're looking at a condensation of experiences, stories, research, and crystallized thoughts that have spanned generations.

And what better way to do so than by dedicating some time to writing about them, following the suggestion of our esteemed Hive account@mipiano for this month of March.

I couldn't begin to share with you about medical books without first talking about my family.

My love of books I inherited from my grandfather, and later from my father. I always saw them reading and enriching their knowledge.

My love of collecting is thanks to my dear mother, who also knew how to find a small space in her home to see and enjoy her treasured possessions.

In the hallway of our house, a mahogany bookcase, two meters high and long, with ten shelves and glass doors, stands like a sacred totem, ever since I took my first breath.

Antonio Brunet, my paternal grandfather, was always reading about the principles of electricity, transformers, coils, magnetic fields, and so on. He was a respectable man and the chief electrician at the "Brasil" sugar mill in Jaronú, Camagüey province, Cuba. Years later, they settled in Havana.

My father followed a different career path. He became a doctor, specializing in Angiology and Vascular Surgery. During his training and later in his residency, he amassed a large collection of medical books in his library.

I followed in his footsteps and graduated as a doctor in 1989. Medicine is a long career, requiring a minimum of six years of study, during which numerous modules and specializations must be completed. Imagine the number of books one has to buy and read during all that time and even afterward.

Upon graduation, we possess a wealth of knowledge, but we lack the experience to integrate and discern what we truly need to perform at our best in practice.

As we say, one graduates and receives a degree, but the art of medicine begins to take shape in the daily work of consultations and on-call shifts.

Over time, you realize that many of the books you read, in practice, represent knowledge you'll never use; you'll even forget it.

I've had to discard several books because they were eaten by termites, and I've given others to students starting their medical studies. Most have managed to survive the biological attack and the ever-present humidity.

However, there are books that I consider fundamental to a doctor's training, among which I mention:

Anatomy Books

Clinical Propaedeutics and Pathophysiology

Medical Physiology

Internal Medicine and Pediatrics

Here we are, before the sacred kings of clinical specialties. These are extensive subjects of great content, where we leave notes and underline what we consider most important.

Buying a book and not leaving a personal mark on it is like leaving it sterile in our eyes. I'm sure many of you have done the same.

Surgical Specialties

Other books

Various clinical specialties, pharmacology, emergency medicine treatises, and manuals that summarize the most important aspects of medical pathologies.

Since my teenage years, I've been passionate about everything related to the marine environment, diving, flora and fauna, and environmental issues. Therefore, after graduating, I specialized in Comprehensive General Medicine, an essential requirement for later choosing a field that would integrate my passion for the marine environment with medicine.

I found that specialization in Underwater and Hyperbaric Medicine. My journey began with diving courses and a diploma program, culminating in a three-year master's degree.

Underwater Medicine is a little-known field, even among healthcare professionals, since it's not taught during medical training nor is it listed in clinical textbooks.

When people ask me about my specialty on the street, their faces are blank, as if I'm speaking Chinese. Others have said to me, "So you're a doctor for little fish?" Anyway, at that point, I explain the term better.

These are some of the main books we use for studying. They were all imported because they aren't sold in my country.

I wanted to save for last some books that will always hold a special place in my heart. They were written by my father.

One of them is for the general public, and the other is for surgeons. In one of them, I had the pleasure of contributing my perspective on the use of hyperbaric oxygenation in the treatment of pathologies that require increased oxygen at the tissue level.

My father passed away a few weeks ago at the age of 97. He was a quiet soul whose passions in his youth were baseball, swimming, and photography.

I will always remember him for his simplicity and beautiful human values. An introverted man who never complained or asked for anything. He expressed his love through actions, not words.

He was Professor Emeritus for his outstanding scientific and academic career in Higher Education and a Hero of Labor of the Republic of Cuba.
He was part of the team that performed the first leg reimplantation in the country in 1968.

Finally, I'll share the dedication my father wrote to his beloved wife in a copy of the book he gave her:

Without her work with the children,
cooking, cleaning, etc.
this work would not have been possible.
We dedicate it with love
to Dana, the mother of the book.

Pedro

Our beloved mother was the heart and soul of our home, outspoken, charismatic, and a beacon of light for her friends. Now my parents are together again, in eternal peace.

Thank you to everyone who read to the end. Have a wonderful week!