My Own Country Abraham Veerghese Analysis

The book My Own Country A Doctor’s Story by Abraham Verghese is a nonfiction story about the author Verghese and his time as a doctor during the beginning of the HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection) and AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) epidemic between the 1970’s through 1980’s, how he dedicated much of his time to provide nonjudgmental help and advice to all patients or victims of HIV/AIDS no matter their ethnicity or sexual orientation, and how he learned about the disease from his patients. Abraham soon becomes the primary care doctor for over fifty patients because of his wide spread popularity of equality to his patients and his passion for the topic of HIV/AIDS. Throughout his experience, Verghese begins to learn how

Verghese talks about how many nurses refused and avoided handling HIV/AIDS patients because of their fear of contracting the disease themselves by positioning themselves in the same vicinity as infected patients. The first sign of this behavior is when Johnson City received their first HIV/AIDS patient a young man who rushed himself into the hospital. After the hospital discovers that he is HIV/AIDS positive, many of the doctors and nurses avoid going into his room and even reusing the expensive equipment used to operate on the young man even after it was throughly sanitized. This behavior toward HIV/AIDS patients showed Verghese’s readers and the patients at that time, that there wasn’t much help for them even at hospitals. It also shows that the hospitals at the time were very judgmental toward the HIV/AIDS patients as if they chose to take the risk of being infected with the

One example of this major issue is with Clyde McCray, the husband of Vickie McCray and father of two children. Clyde was described by his wife Vickie as one who was “oversexed”. Clyde went around and had affairs with both men and women including Vickie’s sister without a regard of the fast spreading disease known as HIV/AIDS. Because of Clyde’s behavior, he infected not only Vickie’s sister, but Vickie herself. This situation shows Verghese’s readers that people weren’t cautious enough in their sexual life to help prevent the spread of the disease. This can be very surprising for readers because the readers would expect people to be extremely careful with their sexual life so as to prevent contracting the virus and potentially infecting those closest; such as one’s family. Readers can learn that people in the story’s time frame did take appropriate measures to check if they were HIV/AIDS positive before risking the chance of infecting their family