Faculty Bibliography

Perri Klass reviews the book 'In the Name of Mercy' by Nicholas Delbanco

Perri Klass reviews the book 'My Own Two Feet: A Memoir' by Beverly Cleary

Klass, a physician, recalls how she spent one Thanksgiving considering how fragile and unpredictable life can be. This was after two babies who seemed quite sick turned out to be fine, while another, perfectly healthy baby died from SIDS

The fear of prescribing the wrong dosage of medication to a patient keeps Klass awake at night. No matter how long she remains a doctor, Klass admits she will occasionally botch a dosage, no matter what precautions she takes

Perri Klass discusses what it is like being a pregnant pediatrician. She has grown weary of the questions her patients' parents ask, but she doesn't mind when her patients touch her belly. She sees pregnancy and parenthood as experiences that have helped her become a more understanding pediatrician

Caring for a sick child requires giving attention to the whole family. The siblings of ill children experience complicated emotions, including guilt, jealousy, and terror

Length, weight, and head circumference are the basic baby measurements charted by doctors, and head circumference can be the most revealing of the three. Klass discusses what a big head, a small head, and an odd-shaped head may mean

Improvements in medical technology have allowed many patients the opportunity to live at home--with the required, complicated and expensive medical devices. A pediatrician discusses the unusual situation that makes it easier to arrange for complicated devices than it is to arrange for the electricity to keep conventional devices working

Near universal immunization means that most of the medical profession has forgotten how to recognize, diagnose, and treat measles. Klass describes treating a child who at first was thought to have measles

The things other people take for granted--asprin, antibiotics, ambulances--are out of reach for the children of poverty. The distress of reasonably well-off parents trying to decide which one of them should stay home with a sick child cannot compare to the agony of those who have absolutely no security