What’s Steve Jobs got to do with Your Medical Mind,
the two books that I am reading? Dr. Jerome Groopman was one of the
many (70+) speakers when I attended the meeting in Boston last October.
I read Groopman in the Wall Street Journal or The New Yorker, and always wanted to read his How Doctors Think, but never did. I am half way through his (and his wife, Dr. Pamela Hartzband’s) Your Medical Mind.
Your Medical Mind talks about the process with which
patients make their medical decisions. I am taken aback by Steve Jobs’
medical mind as much as by his ingenious ‘brain children’, the likes of
iPod, iPhone and iPad or even the Apple stores.
I initially had some reservation in reading
Steve Jobs,
as it may not be a true biography, but an authorized
semi-autobiography, judging on the degree of cooperation from Jobs and
his family that Walter Isaacson enjoyed. I felt reassured on reading
the chapters (Round One, Round Two and Round Three) about his
illness—nothing but honest, even Jobs’ regret about his decision in
delaying the needed surgery for nine months was mentioned.
His
rare pancreatic cancer (pancreatic neuro-endocrine tumor, still a
malignant one—slow growing thought it may be) was discovered
serendipitously by a CT scan that was ordered for a kidney stone. The
biopsy was done in the evening of the CT scan and his wife remembered
her husband’s doctors “tearing up with joy. It turned to be an islet
cell or pancreatic neuro-endocrine tumor, which is rare but slower
growing and thus most likely to be treated successfully.”
Some
may say that Jobs blew it by refusing the surgery that was obviously
recommended; instead he looked for the alternative medicine by following
strict vegan diet, organic herbs and “other treats found on internet,
frequent bowel cleansing, hydrotherapy or even the psychic.” None of
the best doctors at Stanford and his loved ones could convince him of
the need of the surgery until nine months later when the tumor (cancer)
had spread to the liver.
Arthur Levinson, a close friend of Jobs and Genentech chairman (former CEO), who has a background of cancer biology. Levinson “pleaded every day” and “the fight almost ruined their friendship.” Andy Grove (the Intel co-founder and former CEO) is Jobs's neighbor, who came to stay with Jobs for two hours when the cancer was first diagnosed. Grove also failed to persuade Jobs to have surgery.
Malignant neuroendocrine tumor is
a complicated one, behavior of which is still elusive, on no can be
sure whether Jobs could have a cure had he consented to the surgery in
October 2003, instead of July 2004. After reading Groopman’s book, it
is still beyond me to understand the health literacy of one who is a
‘genius’ in the line of his work and a man of vision.
“Jobs
tended to be deeply moved by artists who displayed purity, and he became a fan
[of Ma]. He invited Ma to play at his wedding,
but he was out of the country on tour. He
came by the Jobs house a few years later, sat in the living room, pulled out
his 1733 Stradivarius cello, and played Bach. 'That is what I would have played for your
wedding,' he told them. Jobs teared up
and told him, 'You[r] playing is the best argument I’ve ever heard for the
existence of God, because I don’t really believe a human alone can do this.' On a subsequent visit Ma allowed Job’s
daughter Erin to hold the cello while they sat around the kitchen. By that time Jobs had been struck by cancer,
and he made Ma promise to play at his funeral.” And Ma did.
I initially had some reservation in reading Steve Jobs,
as it may not be a true biography, but an authorized
semi-autobiography, judging on the degree of cooperation from Jobs and
his family that Walter Isaacson enjoyed. I felt reassured on reading
the chapters (Round One, Round Two and Round Three) about his
illness—nothing but honest, even Jobs’ regret about his decision in
delaying the needed surgery for nine months was mentioned.
I do not know how iPad, iPod and iPhone are called in Taiwan, but today they should be called, 哀Pad, 哀Pod and 哀Phone.
