Overview

Charles H. Banov, gifted storyteller and physician, shares tales from over fifty years of his love affair with medicine and looks back with honesty and humor at growing up Jewish in the South and opening the first doctor's office in a tiny Texas town. His journey, from anxious medical student to respected physician and president of a major international medical association, is filled with triumphs and setbacks, humor and sadness. They include the challenge of raising a special-needs daughter, the random stroll with a woman who turned out to be Oprah Winfrey and saving lives in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Dr. Banov shares these moments and more in his absorbing, often hilarious and always uplifting memoir. Banov's intimate portraits of the teachers, fellow students and, above all, the patients who framed his career are recounted with warmth and insight, and provide a rare inside view into the making of a doctor. The drama, humor and humanity of Dr. Banov's many years as a practicing physician will enrich and inspire medical students, health care professionals and people everywhere who want to make a difference in their communities.

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9781596295049

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Charles H. Banov, MD, was born in Charleston, South Carolina, and has lived there most of his life, though he has also traveled and taught in more than seventy-five countries. He emphatically denies that trouble follows him, though he has in fact been imprisoned by rebels in Venezuela, threatened by drug lords in Peru and followed by Soviet Union intelligence officers in Moscow. A graduate of Emory University and the Medical College of South Carolina in Charleston, Dr. Banov is a fellow of many national and international medical societies, including the American Academy of Allergy, the American College of Physicians and the American College of Chest Physicians. He has served as president of the American College of Allergy and of Interasma, the international organization of world asthma and chest physicians. The Boy Scouts of America presented him with a prestigious medical award, though to his chagrin they took it back, as he was only twelve years old at the time and therefore ineligible. He has not yet recovered from the disappointment. Dr. Banov has lectured on the subject of allergies throughout the world, though a Moscow audience once confused his comments on cat allergies with off-color remarks about the sitting American president. A television reporter excitedly encouraged him to further discuss ragweed allergies while her own throat was closing up from severe anaphylaxis. With his wife Nancy Leopold Banov, Dr. Banov has raised four children, one of whom, Pamela, has survived with Rett Syndrome, a severe developmental disorder. Nancy founded the South Carolina Society for Autistic Children, and both she and Dr. Banov have testified before the United States Congress on the subject of special-needs children. They remain vigorous advocates for persons with disabilities.

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