So it felt particularly timely that, for The . Print this page. One of the more memorable patients that you dealt with at the VA hospital was a woman who had served in Afghanistan, and you had quite a conversation with her. She said no and that she felt safe. 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 . Everything seemed to add up. I was the only applicant and I was very qualified for the position, but they rejected me, leaving the position vacant. Let me reintroduce you. She and I spoke for a long time about how she had no one to talk to, and now because of coronavirus, she was even more alone than she used to be. Michele Harper, 2020. And they were summoned, probably, a couple of times. . She has taken on many leadership roles . Her memoir is "The Beauty In Breaking." After some time at a teaching hospital, you went to - you worked at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Philadelphia. So it was always punctuated by violence. I ran to the room. She loves following patients through different phases of their lives, helping them to stay healthy and fulfilled. And it's a very easy exam. Like any workplace, medicine has a hierarchy but people of color and women are usually undermined. HARPER: Oh, yeah, all the time. But I feel well. In a recent interview with NPR, Dr. Michele Harper discussed her impetus for becoming an emergency room doctor: " . HARPER: It does. 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." And I told the police that not only was that request unethical and unprofessional, it's also illegal. Or was it a constant worry? Its a blessing, a good problem to have. Michele Harper: Processing what she saw in and out of the ER. I mean, was it difficult? If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), text "STRENGTH" to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or go to suicidepreventionlifeline.org. Eventually she said, I come here all the time and you're the only problem. I'm also the only Black doctor she's seen, per her chart. And they get better. Emergency room physician, Michele Harper, grew up in a complicated family. . 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. DAVIES: You described in the piece that you wrote about the mask that you wore over your face. They stayed . HARPER: Yes. And I'm not sure what the question here is. . She was there with her doting father. HARPER: Yes. HARPER: Yes, 100%. She wanted us to sign off that she was OK because she was trying to get her her career back, trying to get sober. That's depleting, and it's also rewarding to be of service. Some salient memories that just remind me of the insecurity of it - there would always be some kind of physical violence. 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. Touching on themes of race and gender, Harper gives voice and humanity to patients who are marginalized and offers poignant insight into the daily sacrifices and heroism of medical workers. Welcome to Group Text, a monthly column for readers and book clubs about the novels, memoirs and short-story collections that make you want to talk, ask questions, and dwell in another world for a little bit longer. The emergency room is a place of intensitya place of noise and colors and human drama. After a childhood in Washington, D.C., she studied at Harvard University and the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University. It made me think that you really connect with patients emotionally, which I'm sure takes longer but maybe also has a cost associated with it. Whats more important is to be happy, to give myself permission to live with integrity so that I am committed to loving myself, and in showing that example it gives others permission to do the same.. He did not want to be in the ER. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your device and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. Brought up in Washington, DC, in an abusive family, she went to Harvard, where she met her husband. You want to describe some of the family dynamics that made it hard? Despite her rigorous schedule, Dr. Michelle enjoys spending time with her family. Dr. Michele Harper has worked as an emergency room physician 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. So they wanted us to prove it and get the drugs out. You grew up in an affluent family in what you describe as some exclusive neighborhoods in Washington, D.C. You went to private school. She is an emergency room physician, and she has a new memoir about her experiences. Once I finished the book, I realized the whole time Id been learning.. But there was one time that I called. And I remember one time when he was protecting my mother - and so I ended up fighting with my father - how my father, when my brother had him pinned to the ground, bit my brother's thumb. It's your patients. You did. I recently had a patient, a young woman who was assaulted. I said, "What is going on?" The Beauty In Breaking by Michele Harper, 9780525537397, available . And I would say, we have patients refuse evaluation in the ER all the time or change their mind, decide they want to leave. So he left the department. DAVIES: We're going to take another break here. Emily and Dr. Harper discuss the back stories that become salient in caring for patients who may be suffering from more than just the injuries . Theres no easy answer to this question. DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR, and we're speaking with Dr. Michele Harper. She's a veteran emergency room physician. Check out our website to find some of Michele's top tips for each of our products and stay tuned for more. MAKE AN APPOINTMENT CALL (302)644-8880. Thats why I have to detonate my life. This is a building I knew. This is FRESH AIR. Michele Harper grew up in Washington, DC, knowing from a fairly young age that healing would be in her future. And as we know from history, this is a lifetime commitment to structural change. And so I left because that was too much to bear. I kept going, and something about it was just concerning me. They speak English and Spanish. On Tuesday, July 21 at 7 p.m., well be talking live with Michele Harper on our Instagram. About Elise Michelle Harper MD. Heather John Fogarty is a Los Angeles writer whose work is anthologized in Slouching Towards Los Angeles: Living and Writing and by Joan Didions Light. She teaches journalism at USC Annenberg. and an older woman carrying the burdens of a sick husband and differently abled grandchild. Michele Harper is a female, African American emergency room physician in a profession that is overwhelmingly male and white. And he apologized because he said that unfortunately, this is what always happens in this hospital - that the hospital won't promote women or people of color. And one of them that I wanted to focus on was one of the last in the book. And you give a pretty dispiriting picture of the place in some ways. She was rushed into the department unconscious, not clear why but assuming a febrile seizure, a seizure that children - young children can have when they have a fever. (SOUNDBITE OF TAYLOR HASKINS' "ALBERTO BALSALM"), DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. At first glance, this memoir by a sexual assault survivor may not appear to have much in common with The Beauty in Breaking. But the cover of Chanel Millers book was inspired by the Japanese art of kintsukuroi, where broken pottery is repaired by filling the cracks with gold, silver or platinum. The gash came from Harpers fathers teeth. It's people outside of your departments. She spent more than a decade as an emergency room physician. Dr. Michele Harper is an emergency room physician and the author of The Beauty in Breaking, a memoir of service, transformation, and self-healing. And I remember thinking to myself, what could lead a person to do something so brutal to a family member? They're allowed to do it. And the consensus in the ER at the time was, well, of course, that is what we're supposed to do. HARPER: Yes. But it was a byproduct. [Read an excerpt from The Beauty in Breaking. ]. And she called the hospital medical legal team to see if that was OK and if somehow she could go over me - because she felt that she was entitled to do so - to get done what the police wanted done. Dr. Michele Harper is a female African American emergency room physician in an overwhelmingly male and white profession. As a Black woman, I navigate an American landscape that claims to be postracial when every waking moment reveals the contrary, Michele Harper writes. The other part of me was pissed off that she felt so entitled to behave so indecently. It wasnt easy. All of them have a lesson of some kind. Dr. Michele Harper, a New Jersey-based emergency room physician, has over a decade's experience in the ER. Apparently, Dr. Michele Sharkey has found love with none other than the brother of a fellow coworker, Dr. Emily Thomas. So I could relate to that. She graduated from STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK / HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER AT STONY BROOK in 2005. I was horrified. Harpers memoir explores her own path to healing, told with compassion and urgency through interactions with her patients. I mean, mainly we get that to make sure there's no infection causing the fever. Her book, The Beauty in Breaking: A Memoir. They didn't ask us if we were safe. As for sex, about 35.8% were female.]. I didn't know why. Their stories weigh heavily on my heart. And in this case, the resident, who kind of tried to go over your head to the hospital, was a white person. I kept thinking, This is absurd. Part of me was laughing inside because she thought she could be so ignorant and inappropriate. When we do experience racism, they often don't get it and may even hold us accountable for it. Do you think of police in general as being in the helping fields? Her book is called "The Beauty In Breaking.". So we reuse it over and over again. But, and perhaps most critically, people have to be held accountable when it comes to racism. HARPER: No. She is a graduate of Harvard University and the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University. In this exquisitely-written, incredibly humane, and inspiring memoir, she tells the story of how she found healing for her own wounds by becoming a healer of others. But, you know, I'm a professional, so I just move on and treat her professionally each shift. So they brought him in because part of their legal work is to prove it. And in that moment, that experience with that family allowed me to, in ways I hadn't previously, just sit there with myself and be honest and to cry about it. We'll continue our conversation in just a moment. And I thought back to her liver function studies, and I thought, well, they can be elevated because of trauma. And I remember thinking - and it was a deep bite. And is it especially difficult working in these hospitals where we don't have enough resources for patients, where a lot of the patients have to work multiple jobs because there isn't a living wage and we're their safety net and their home medically because they don't have access to health care? So that's what she was doing. The end of her marriage brought the beginning of her self-healing. On the other hand, it makes the work easier just to be the best doctor you can and not get the follow-up. Add to Calendar 2022-08-22 20:00:00 2022-08-22 21:00:00 America/Chicago Online Author Talk With Michele Harper As part of our new Online Author Series, we present a conversation with Dr. Michele Harper about her inspiring personal journey and the success of her New York Times bestselling memoir, "The Beauty in Breaking." Adults. 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