Another Five Patients

This suspenseful story of medical fiction traces foreign medical graduate Dr. Kip Paiva an emigrant and survivor of human trafficking in post-apartheid South Africa. Her refuge from a Zulu militant captor comes to an end as his brutal violence has finally tracked her across the ocean. While her past catches up to her Dr. Paiva also becomes the scapegoat of a malpractice suit. Frightened for her and her sons lives Dr. Paiva begins a journey fueled by bottomless resiliency and a mothers love. Her story intertwines through five others all riveting and all taking place in the busy Spectrum General Hospital in New York. Debut author Melissa Crickard uses this microcosm to illustrate larger aspects of modern medicine. Another Five Patients combines international intrigue and hospital politics with individual human stories involving hospital staff patients and their families. The result is a captivating at times satirical experience that reminds us that whether doctor mother or child we are all people with flaws and emotions in a world of uncertainty.