The Accidental Doctor
I never meant
to be a doctor.
At sixteen, a friend dared me to apply to medical school. No plan. No passion. I said yes anyway. Thirty years later, across eight specialties — general practice, emergency, intensive care, surgery, psychiatry, paediatrics, cardiothoracics, and a stint as a ship's surgeon — I've seen the conversations medicine rarely has time for in a ten-minute appointment.
This is where I write them down.
What I write about
Origin stories
Eight specialties. A ship's surgeon post. A career that happened by accident. The moments that taught me what no single training does.
Patient cases
Anonymised and changed. Every case ends with a lesson — the transferable kind, the kind I wish more doctors had told me.
Connections
What mind does to body. What sleep does to heart. What isolation does to immunity. The links the ten-minute appointment can't see.
Recent writing
The Accidental Doctor Letter
A long walk with a doctor friend
One patient story, one lesson, and one connection the system misses. Every Sunday. No hype. No panic cycle.