HARPER: There are times and it's really difficult because we want to know. D.C., in an abusive family, she went to Harvard, where she met her husband. But I always seen it an opportunity. Fax: 1-512-324-7555. She was young. So I could relate to that. DAVIES: You know, you write in the very beginning of the book, in describing what the book is about, that you want to take us into the chaos of emergency medicine and show us where the center is. Los Angeles. But Im trying to figure out how to detonate my life to restructure and find the time to write the next book.. So I started the transfer. This conversation with ER doctor Michele Harper will cover many of the lessons she's learned on her inspiring personal journey and the success of her New York Times-bestselling memoir, The Beauty in Breaking. And so when I was ordering her tests, I didn't need to order liver function tests. "You can't pour from an empty cup.". She writes about the incident so we always remember that beneath the most superficial layer of our skin, we are all the same. Join our community book club. Maternal-Fetal Medicine Specialist, Comprehensive Fetal Care Center. So not only had they done all this violation, but then they were trying to take away her livelihood as well. Coming up, Maureen Corrigan reviews "Mexican Gothic," a horror story she says is a ghastly treat to read. She is an advocate of personal wellness and evolution as a foundation for collective liberation. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. And I should just note to listeners that this involves a subject that will - well, may be disturbing to some. And you - I guess, gradually, you kept some contact with your father, then eventually cut off Off contact altogether. But Harper isn't just telling war stories in her book. Original network. And then if we found it and we're supposed to get it out, then we'd have to put a tube into his stomach and put in massive amounts of liquid so that he would eventually pass it. HARPER: Yes. I drove a cab in Philly in the late '70s, and some of the most depressing fares I had were people going to the VA hospital and people being picked up at the VA hospital. He said it wasn't true. This was not one of those circumstances. You've also worked in big-city teaching hospitals where that was not as much the case, I assume. In this gutting, philosophical memoir, a 37- year-old neurosurgeon chronicled what it is like to have terminal cancer. And just to speak to this example, I was going for a promotion, a hospital position, going to remain full-time clinical staff in the ER but also have an administrative position in the hospital. The officers said we were to do it anyway. Her memoir is "The Beauty In Breaking." Well, as the results came back one by one, they were elevated. she went to Harvard, where she met her husband. What I'm seeing so far is a willingness to communicate about racism in medicine, but I have not yet seen change. All the stuff I used to do for self-care yoga, meditation, eating healthy Ive had to double down and increase clarity about my boundaries, she says. HARPER: Yes, 100%. Dr. Harper has particular interests in high-risk and routine obstetrics and preventive care. HARPER: Well, it's difficult. When I was in high school, I would write poetry, she says. HARPER: Yes. A graduate of Harvard University and the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, she has worked as an ER doctor for more than a decade at various institutions, including as chief resident at Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx and in the emergency department at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Philadelphia. Her cries became more and more distressed. This is a building I knew. When you visit this site, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. For example, I had a patient who, when I walked into the room and introduced myself, cut me off and said, "Okay, yeah, well, this is what you're going to do for me today." But that is the mission, should they choose to follow it. Harper tells her story through the lives of people she encounters on stretchers and gurneys patients who are scared, vulnerable, confused and sometimes impatient to the point of rage. This will be a lifetime work, though. HARPER: I think it's more accurate to say in my case that you get used to the fact that you don't know what's going to happen. Its 11 a.m., and Michele Harper has just come off working a string of three late shifts at an emergency room in Trenton, N.J. Share this page on Facebook. There were other popular employees like Dr. Sandra Wisniewski and Dr. Elizabeth Grammar who also left the show. He had no complaints. He did not want to be in the ER. DAVIES: I'm, you know, just thinking that you were an African American woman in a place where a lot of the patients were people of color. You say that this center has the sturdy roots of insight that, in their grounding, offer nourishment that can lead to lives of ever-increasing growth. Nobody went to check on her. In a new memoir, Dr. Michele Harper writes about treating gunshot wounds, discovering evidence of child abuse and drawing courage from her patients as she's struggled to overcome her own trauma. Whether you have read The Beauty in Breaking or not there are important lessons in self-healing to take . And I think that that has served me well. And my staff - I was working with a resident at the time who didn't understand. Emergency room physician, Michele Harper, grew up in a complicated family. She was a Black patient. Please register to receive a link for viewing this online event. Even before writing her powerful, exquisitely written memoir about the healing of self and others, the extraordinary Dr. Michele Harper was noteworthy: she is among the mere 2% of doctors working in America today who are Black women. So it never felt safe at home. Our mission is to get Southern California reading and talking. She writes, I figured that if I could find stillness in this chaos, if I could find love beyond this violence, if I could heal these layers of wounds, then I would be the doctor in my own emergency room.. HARPER: Yeah. But your childhood was not easy. Nope - not at all because different would mean structural change. That's the difference. It was crying out for help, and the liver test was kind of an intuition on your part. It's many people. That's what it would entail to do what the police were telling us to do. Email this page. So, you know, initially, he comes in, standing - we're all standing - shackled hands and legs. NPR's Scott Simon speaks to Dr. Michele Harper about her new memoir, The Beauty in Breaking. He did not - well, no medical complaints. As an African American emergency room physician currently working in New Jersey, Dr. Michele Harper has not only been forced to constantly prove herself to her colleagues, patients and supervisors, but she has also been compelled to take a stand for people of color and women who are often undermined by the medical community. She has taken on many leadership roles . And, you know, while I haven't had a child that has died, I recognized in the parents when I had to talk to them after the code and tell them that their baby, that their perfect child - and the baby was perfect - had passed away, I recognized in them the agony, the loss of plans, of promise, the loss of a future that one had imagined. My being there with them in the moment did force me to be honest with myself about - that's why it was so painful for the marriage to end. I didn't know why. And I told the police that not only was that request unethical and unprofessional, it's also illegal. Dr. Michelle Oakley and her husband, Shane Oakley, are still married. It was a gift that they gave me that, then, yes, allowed me to heal in ways that weren't previously possible. So the experiences that would apply did apply. Because she's yelling for help." Be it Mr. Spano, my ex-husband, my . You know, I speak about some of my experiences, as you mention, where I was in a large teaching hospital, more affluent community, predominantly white and male clinical staff. MICHELE HARPER: (Reading) I am the doctor whose palms bolster the head of the 20-year-old man with a gunshot wound to his brain. Her X-ray was pretty much OK. Her story begins with an introduction to her dysfunctional family, her childhood of physical abuse, and her . The end of her marriage brought the beginning of her self-healing. They stayed together through medical school until two months before she was scheduled to join the staff of a hospital in central Philadelphia when he told her he couldn't . . I'm wondering if nowadays things feel any different to you in hospital settings and the conversations that you're having, the sensibilities of people around you. DAVIES: Dr. Michele Harper is an emergency room physician. What was it like getting acclimated to that community and the effect it had on the patients that you saw? The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. I kept thinking, This is absurd. Part of me was laughing inside because she thought she could be so ignorant and inappropriate. While she was fighting for survival, I felt that what I could do, what the others of us could do, is not only help her find health again. Photo: LaTosha Oglesby. And I would say, we have patients refuse evaluation in the ER all the time or change their mind, decide they want to leave. She spoke to me via an Internet connection from her home. ABOUT THE PROVIDER. She said no and that she felt safe. Her memoir is "The Beauty In Breaking." Coming up, Maureen Corrigan reviews "Mexican Gothic," a horror story she says is a ghastly treat . So it did open me up to that realization. But there has to be that agreement and understanding or nothing will be done about it. DAVIES: And we should just note that you were able to calmly talk to him and ask him if he would let you take his vital signs. No. Dr. Michele Harper is an emergency medicine physician. You write that the hospital would be so full of patients that some would wait in the ER, and then you would be expected to care for them in addition to those arriving for emergency care. But one of the things that's interesting about the story, as you tell it, is that, you know, there was this imperative, as there typically are in families of - in battered families, to keep it secret, to keep the whole - keep a respectable front. Until that's addressed, we won't have more people from underrepresented communities in medicine. I was horrified. That is my mission. There was nothing to it. You know, hopefully, one day we can do something different. DAVIES: Right. Their stories weigh heavily on my heart. Clinically, all along the way - I prefer clinically to work in environments that are lower-resourced financially, immigrant, underrepresented people of color. We Hope she misses her camera days and returns to Michigan and the show "Dr. Pol.". Her story is increasingly relevant as the aftermath of the pandemic continues to profoundly affect the medical community. When youre Black in medicine, there are constant battles. Did your relationship grow? ( 2014-04-12) Dr. Oakley, Yukon Vet is an American television series on Nat Geo Wild. Michele Harper: Processing what she saw in and out of the ER. Further, for women and people of color who do make it into the medical field, were often overlooked for leadership roles. It's your patients. They stayed together through medical school until two months before she was scheduled to join the staff of a hospital in central . I asked her nurse. DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR, and we're speaking with Dr. Michele Harper. And it's a long, agonizing process, you know, administering drugs, doing the pumping. To help combat systemic racism, consider learning from or donating to these organizations: Campaign Zero (joincampaignzero.org) which works to end police brutality in America through research-proven strategies. And my mother said, well, she didn't want to pursue charges if it meant my brother was going to be incarcerated. They stayed together through medical school until two months before she was scheduled to join the staff of a . For example, the face shield I talk about is different than the one we have now because we had a donation from an outside company. We need to support our essential workers, which means having a living wage, affordable housing, sick leave and healthcare. So the medical establishment, also, clearly needs reform. She was in there alone. I was really scared because I didnt know that I could write a book. Like any workplace, medicine has a hierarchy but people of color and women are usually undermined. Take away her livelihood as well and women are usually undermined difficult because we want be... Think that that has served me well be that agreement and understanding or nothing be... But people of color and women are usually undermined on the patients that saw. But that is the audio record communities in medicine, but I have not yet seen.... 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