Almost Hell Novel
Joshua, a premature baby, is delivered on a dilapidated picnic table in the picturesque Valley Falls State Park in the midst of West Virginia’s obstetrical shortage and escalating malpractice crisis. The incident thrusts the state into the national limelight. While Dr.Suzanne Oakley, chairman of the Ob/Gyn department, desperately tries to solve the paramount health care problem, personal issues from her past emerge. She reaches out to her childhood friend, the governor, for some assistance in the form of tort reform only to meet resistance; the governor’s husband is president of the trial lawyers association.
Dr. Oakley’s colleague and nationally recognized sex educator Manuel Alvarez-Casilla’s grief stricken behavior is disruptive to the department and creates another dimension to the already complex issues. Almost Hell is a contemporary hybrid novel that intertwines factual information and accurate historical data through Dr. Oakley’s geyser-like life as she attempts to solve the mountain state’s medical predicament. At the same time, the catastrophes continue to mount. A genetic wake, designer babies,
sexual lectures, psychotherapy sessions, Mountaineer football, and a dramatic courtroom scene contribute to the story line which takes place in wild and wonderful West Virginia.
Excerpt from Chapter 3:
Suzanne decided she had better get to the issue at hand before Barbara bolted.
“Barb, as you know, two days ago, a woman was transferred to WVU with her baby partially delivered with his head trapped inside. We had another catastrophe yesterday. This adds up to fifty-three obstetrical disasters so far. I’m not asking you as an old friend, but as one concerned West Virginian to another. We really need legislative changes and tort reform immediately, or we are going to see a complete meltdown of our medical system. Excellent doctors have left the state, and we haven’t been able to recruit any new ones. Could you please at least appoint a task force of physicians, lawyers, and insurance representatives to analyze the problem? Or you could establish a commission of twelve senators to study the problem. That’s what Maryland did. We need to devise a plan to retain the remaining obstetricians, retrieve some that have recently left, and recruit new doctors to the state.”
“Suzanne,” Barbara said as she shifted her weight again, “survival of the fittest. Besides, you know Tom won’t allow me to even broach the subject of tort reform.”
Dr. Rebecca Burdette entered the medical field in 1978 as a naive nursing assistant. Since then, she has diligently worked her way up from a RN to a board certified obstetrician/gynecologist. Along the way, she earned a BA in biology and a MA in psychology from Hood College in Frederick, Maryland. In 1988, she was inducted into Psi Chi, the national honor society in psychology. She graduated from West Virginia University School of Medicine in 1992 and currently resides in York, Pennsylvania, with her two teenage children.
The knowledge she acquired during her master’s program is evident throughout her novel and is utilized daily in her private practice of gynecology and sex therapy. In 2001, she lost a medical malpractice case. The psychological turmoil that ensued was the impetus for this book.