Miracle Cure

Miracle Cure was inspired by several highly publicized cases of cheating in academic research, one of them in the lab of a Nobel Prize winner here in Boston.

This is perhaps the most autobiographical of all of my books, although there are certainly large chunks of my life in every one of them. Brian Holbrook's life parallels my own in that I tore up a knee playing football (in my case touch football in med school against the law school) and required surgery (a total of 5 operations so far.) With time, I became addicted to the pain medicine, just as Brian did, and ultimately got into serious trouble. Gratefully, 23 years ago, concerned doctors came to my aid. Since then, I have devoted my life to helping docs with problems similar to mine, initially as a volunteer, and now as an associate director of the Massachusetts Medical Society's Physician Health Services. Brian's trials and tribulations were modeled after those faced by many of "my" doctors. Characters in The Sisterhood, Extreme Measures (he was framed) and Silent Treatment also had to deal with alcohol and drug problems. Write about what you know about, I am always telling would-be novelists. Another aspect of Miracle Cure that hits close to my life is Brian's father's cardiac disease. While I was writing the novel, I was also helping to care for my father who had terminal cardiac disease and prostate cancer, which took his life a few months before the first draft of the book was finished. Many of our interactions and exchanges found their way onto the pages.

In preparation for the writing of this book, I spent many hours observing in the cardiac catheterization lab at the Massachusetts General Hospital where I trained. Drs. Michael Fifer and Igor Palacios were indispensable in this regard.

—Michael Palmer

Excerpt from Miracle Cure book jacket:
An agonizing sports injury did more than end Brian Holbrook's professional football dreams. It left the skilled cardiologist with an addiction to prescription painkillers that eventually cost him his marriage and his license to practice medicine. But now, at 38, Brian has cleaned up his act, swallowed his pride, and is ready to start over. The prestigious Boston Heart Institute, home of some of the world's top surgeons and cardiologists, has offered Brian an opportunity to get back into scrubs...and participate in trials of an extraordinary new drug that could revolutionize medicine. Vasclear may have the power to reverse arteriosclerosis, the number one killer in the civilized world. In short, it offers the promise of a pharmaceutical fountain of youth. The initial results are so dazzling, Brian pushes to get his own father, who has a dangerous heart condition, accepted into the Vasclear study. But soon Brian is uneasy. With billions of dollars at stake in the race to get FDA approval for the drug, Brian's meddling could destroy his career–or worse. For as Dr. Brian Holbrook is beginning to suspect, at Boston Heart Institute, knowing too much is the quickest way to the morgue.

read more about Miracle Cure at:
RandomHouse.com/bantamdell

buy Miracle Cure at:
BarnesandNoble.com
Amazon.com