Space Doctor

The parts where the author shows his work about real questions around medicine in space are excellent. Good drama, pacing is solid, and the responses in the moment seem very reasonable. The book falls apart when it comes to the characters (with the doctor who can heal anything but his broken heart and his stereotype love interests taking front and center), and the non-medical stuff is -very- strongly libertarian. Expect long diatribes in the second half about how business should be self regulating, government can only cause problems, and how standards and regulations are the bane of real people doing real work. Highly credulous of the 1980s and fits right into that "Reagan Era" of the United States. Also, the author is a recreational pilot and oh boy, does that come up way more often than you'd think in a novel about space medicine. All that being said, highly recommended for the doctor parts but you miss nothing if you scan through the rest.

From the Back Cover ----- Tom Noel set up the first hospital in orbit.. and it could be the last! It would cost 150 lives, more or less, to get the GEO satellite on-line and transmitting solar power to an energy starved Earth - that was the estimate of fatal industrial accidents in the mammoth space project. It was Dr. Tom Noel's job to cut that deadly figure drastically, by designing, staffing, and running a complete emergency ward... 22,400 miles from the nearest hospital. Tom Noels had to re-invent almost every medical technique to allow for weightlessness and the other unknown effects of space, and he improvised brilliantly - but not always sucessfully. He treated patients who were injured in ways undreamed of in medical history - including a "bullet wound" from a micro-meteorite - lost some, saved some, and would save many more.. if only he managed to stay alive himself! --------------- An excellent read. As current and foresightful as the day it was first published in 1981. It poses many realistic questions re: the practice of medicine in space.

I found this an intriguing novel which opens the eyes of the readers as to the problems that future space exploration will face. Especially in the field of medicine.It forces one to consider alternative means to attain the proper medical treatment that might be used for long term missions in our near future.A regular ER in zero gravity. Full of probable medical emergencies and the daring that the station's medical personal must take upon themselves to save the lives of their patients.A departure from aliens science-fiction that still instills the excitement of space pioneering.

Technically oriented doctor who's rich friend gets him to bid and run the clinic on the construction site for the first powersat in geosynchronous earth orbit.I liked it and re-read it occasionally.