Laura Malfere - Abraham Verghese. A Biography

In 1980, Abraham Verghese joined thousands of other hopeful medical graduates from the University of Madras and entered into the competitive world of residents and interns in the United States. As he stepped off the plane to begin his career as a doctor in an unfamiliar environment, he could never have imagined that his presence in the US would change the face of medicine forever. Vergheses passion for patients, determination to eliminate prejudice and compassionate nature would inspire others, driving doctors worldwide to take a different approach to the way they practiced medicine.

Born in the impoverished country of Ethiopia, Verghese has spent much of his life battling against the social restraints that threatened to hold him back from achieving his dreams. He spent much of his youth facing injustice in his home country and was raised around poverty.

Coming from a country ravaged by famine, Verghese was relatively unexposed to some of the medical traumas he would later face in the US.

Verghese initially struggled to come to terms with adjusting to working life in the US, an issue that plagued him in the earlier years of his career. Upon his arrival, he had to battle against the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s, a challenge that forced him to deal with prejudices entirely new to him. Despite this, Verghese has achieved prestige that many doctors can only dream of: one of the greatest testimonies to his skills as a doctor is his tenured appointment as a professor at Stanford University.

As a writer, Verghese has challenged doctors around the world to address how they treat their patients. After writing My Own Country: A Doctor's Story , Verghese truly gained attention worldwide. From that point on, his pioneering ideas led to articles in notable publications, including The New York Times . His emphasis on medical humanities forced many physicians to face up to their asocial, reserved nature, which in turn caused them to question whether they were really giving their patients the best treatment possible.

Verghese has managed to leave a lasting legacy, continuing his work as an influential physician. He has achieved this by continuously challenging those who practice medicine, as well as delivering lectures on his ideas across the US. Today medical schools and medical students across the world place a greater emphasis on the holistic side of health care, all thanks to his passion and determination.

In 1955, two Indian teachers living in Ethiopia brought Abraham Verghese into the world. At the time that he was born, Ethiopia had just experienced one of the worst spells of famine the world had ever seen. This meant that the world Verghese was born into was one where many people struggled to survive; a world of famine and conflict.

Although not much is known about Verghese's earlier years, we do know that he grew up in the Ethiopian city of Addis Abeba. Both of Verghese's parents were devout Christians and were practicing members the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church. At the time that Verghese was living there, the city was still recovering from a World War II invasion by the Italians. For a brief period, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) presided over the area. Although the OAU claimed that they would bring equality to the people of Ethiopia, many still suffered and continued to live in poverty.

Verghese did begin his medical degree in Addis Abeba, but when the Ethiopian leader Emperor Haile Selassie was deposed, political unrest lead to a mass exodus from the country in 1973. As Verghese was seeking stability, he decided against becoming a refugee and instead joined his parents in the US.

Verghese's arrival in the States was the beginning of a life that was unfamiliar to him. After departing from a country where violence, riots and famine were widespread, he began life in Tennessee. In contrast to his previous life, the state was at the height of southern rock culture, civil rights movements and a rich culinary legacy of Memphis barbecues.

While there he put his medical skills to the test by working as a ward orderly, before leaving to complete his medical education. Although the work of an orderly is a far cry from the advanced practice that medical students grow accustomed to, Verghese was deeply moved by the experiences he had there. The plight of patients, the poor care they received, and above all the insensitive nature of the medical staffconcerned more with their own personal goals than delivering fair treatment to their patientsgave him the determination to complete his medical education. These observations that Verghese made as an orderly were what spurred him to make changes in medical systems around the world.

As life in Ethiopia continued to remain unstable, Verghese chose to continue his medical degree at the University of Madras. At the time that Verghese studied there, the University was bringing change to medical education in the developing world. In addition to establishing a department of pharmacology and environmental toxicology, an institute of physiology had been opened. It was these advanced changes that allowed Verghese to return to US and begin his internship.

Verghese returned to the US once again in 1980. It was during the 80s that thousands of medical hopefuls from the near-east would attempt to establish themselves in the US medical system. The competition was fierce, and to Verghese it was even intimidating. He later described the journey he made from the University of Madras to an intern in the US as "The Cow path to US." The parallels he drew between feeling like an animal being herded and his journey to medical school suggest he did not anticipate just how successful he would become.

It was not long after beginning his life in US that Verghese was faced with one of the world's most shocking epidemics: the 1980s AIDS outbreak. It was in the year of 1981 that young gay men in New York were breaking out with Kaposi's Sarcoma, a rare and debilitating form of cancer. Medical professionals soon began making the connection between AIDS and Kaposi's Sarcoma, and the prejudice towards gay men began to grow and become increasingly common as a result. The disease was given the stigmatizing name GRID, also known as Gay Related Immune Deficiency, and Verghese soon began to notice many of his patients being segregated.

After spending two years witnessing the stigma and confusion that came with AIDS, Verghese's career took him to the city of Boston. Without foreseeing the enormous epidemic that the disease would bring, he began specializing in infectious diseases. At the time, Verghese became wrapped up in what he has described as "the conceit of cure." As thousands of young gay men died before him, he lost sight of the human beings beneath the cases.

Verghese eventually lost a patient his own age, an experience that finally drove him to empathize with those who suffered on an emotional level. He saw the pain, suffering and despair in the faces of the men he was treating, and he reached a turning point in the way he approached his role as a doctor. It was not long after that two scientists, Robert Gallo and Luc Montagnier, discovered the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Their discovery revealed that HIV was the virus that led to AIDS, and it was spreading fast. Verghese had to face the shocking reality behind his role as a doctor: he was not conducting research; he was fighting a terrifying war.

For ten years, Verghese watched thousands of patients die in front of his eyes. At some points he would see up to 80 patients a day, each one a hopeless case. The discovery of HIV in the blood of past patients by Gallo and Montagnier had not made his battle any easier, only more real. In addition to facing the shocking realities of the disease, Verghese was forced to face up to the prejudices within himself. He realized that alongside his colleagues he had become "homo-ignorant."