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Twelve Patients: Life and Death at Bellevue Hospital (The Inspiration for the NBC Drama New Amsterdam)

Author:
Eric Manheimer
Read by:
Eric Manheimer
Read Read Own Own

Unabridged Audiobook

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Ratings
Book
17
Narrator
10
Release Date
July 10, 2012
Duration
13 hours 13 minutes
Summary
In the spirit of Oliver Sacks and the inspiration for the NBC drama New Amsterdam, this memoir from a Medical Director of Bellevue Hospital looks poignantly at patients' lives, highlighting the complex mind-body connection.

"As intensely involving as any scripted for a television medical drama." —The New York Daily News

Twelve Patients shows the plights of twelve very different patients—from dignitaries at the nearby UN, to supermax prisoners at Riker's Island, to illegal immigrants, and Wall Street tycoons.

Dr. Eric Manheimer is not only the medical director of the country's oldest public hospital—he is also a patient. As the book unfolds, the narrator is diagnosed with cancer and is forced to wrestle with the end of his own life even as he struggles to save the lives of others.

"This book is not only brilliant, it is deeply moving, and as socially and politically important as anything I have read over the past ten years." —James F. Gilligan, psychiatrist and author
Reviews
Profile Avatar Anonymous Jun 2026

So interesting, I wish they would make a T.V. series that is truly based on this book. Truth is much stranger than fiction.

Profile Avatar Deborah K. Oct 2025

The book is moving and interesting. It serves as an excellent education in what it means to have compassion for other humans. I think many people, particularly those in government looking to cut funding, would benefit from this book. Some people commented that the narrator was dry or monotone. He is the author, and I could feel his compassion and frustration with the limitations he was faced with throughout his narration.

Profile Avatar Laura B. Mar 2023

It inspired the tv series New Amsterdam and is a very serious book. Author is very intelligent but the book is a bit dry.

Profile Avatar Anonymous Apr 2019

I was really excited to read the book after watching the pilot TV show. Unfortunately the narrator/author was too dry for my taste.

Twelve Patients: Life and Death at Bellevue Hospital (The Inspiration for the NBC Drama New Amsterdam)

Twelve Patients: Life and Death at Bellevue Hospital (The Inspiration for the NBC Drama New Amsterdam)

Author: Eric Manheimer
Read by: Eric Manheimer
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