Review of "White Coat Tales"

Hi there, let's review this interesting graphics novel published by Epigram Books, really a collaborative project between local writer Suffian Hakim and National University of Singapore (NUS) medical students, and illustrator Eugene Lim.

The story follows four young protagonists: Divya, Yao Quan, Paul, Samantha and Shafia, who are medical students wanting to be doctors. The book starts with their admissions exercise and their commencement (graduation) at the end of five years.

These youths came from different backgrounds. For those of you who are not familiar: Singapore is a small multi-racial island nation with Chinese, Malay, Asian Indian and many other ethnicities. It is generally considered to be a highly competitive society where many youths aimed to be professionals like doctors, lawyers and engineers. Samantha is an Institute of Technical Education (ITE) and polytechnic graduate whose parents run a popiah (local Chinese snack) stall. Divya is a competitive high flyer who discovers the human side of medicine through the Overseas Community Involvement project (OCIP). As part of the voluntary program, she serves in a village in East Java on several trips by assisting in local healthcare programs. At the end of the course, Divya becomes the valedictorian of the cohort. Paul is passionate in the Arts and initially has trouble with the academic rigour of the course, having to sit for vivas (oral examinations to determine pass or fail) several times before progressing to the following year. In the later years of the medical course, he becomes an advocate for mental health, and wins the Medical Grand Challenge with a project related to that. This Challenge is an innovative multi-disciplinary health project. Yao Quan, the son of a well-known cardiologist, is initially obnoxious but later learns humility and recognises the privilege to serve others. As part of Yao Quan's character development arc, he admits at one point that he hasn't checked the positioning of an intravenous cannula before going for lunch. This has resulted in the patient's pain over the site of the cannula as fluid has extravasated into the tissue. At the end of the book, Yao Quan abandons his flashy car (likely funded by his parents) for a more practical one.

The book is highly realistic, incorporating rituals that a medical student has to go through. Examples include the white coat ceremony, and the Rag and Flag day. The book also has  a sweet romance subplot between Paul and Samantha.

I thought the book is wonderfully illustrated with clean lines, interspersed between actual photographs of real places in the medical school. If you like coming of age stories set in a multi-ethnic setting, you'll like this story. The story should appeal to young and older readers. It is a universal story: medicine is not about pride of knowledge, but about service to humanity. A common theme is, beyond making a medical diagnosis, to see "the big picture", which refers to the socio-economic and cultural milieu that patients come from.  There is also poignant social commentary: a man about to have an amputation sadly doesn't not even receive visits from his children (who are busy professionals in the form of doctors, lawyers and engineers).

It is interesting to contrast this book with "Symptoms of a Heart Break" about a young medical intern (youngest doctor in America, aged 16 years) which I have also reviewed here in one of my blogs.

Have you read similar books? Do you agree that "White Coat Tales" is an interesting read?