Published in 2024, Dr. Fazlur Rahman’s second book, Our Connected Lives, Caring for Cancer Patients in Rural Texas, gives a dissenting voice to the often-persistent yearning for “the good ol’ days.”
From one of the first full-time oncologists in West Texas, the author presents case-after-case, confirming the life-giving presence of modern cancer research, technology, chemotherapy, and medical intervention within the confines of this rural setting.
Traveling The Temple Road
Dr. Rahman is now retired after practicing cancer medicine for thirty-five years in San Angelo. His first book, The Temple Road (2016), chronicles his journey, both literally and figuratively, from the jungles of what is now Bangladesh through the obstacles that this bright, inquisitive young boy endured to complete his medical training and then finally to land in dusty, dry West Texas.
In the “Epilogue” of this first book, looking back after his retirement, Dr. Rahman recognizes the effect that his patients have had on him. “My patients and I felt sad parting from each other…I did not have adequate words to describe what I had witnessed in my patients all those years: the power of the human spirit, and its ability for generosity in the face of tragedy.”
However, in the eight intervening years, Dr. Rahman does find words to describe his connection to his patients in the stories of Clara, Corina, J. D, Mrs. Cooper, and Juan in Our Connected Lives:
Clara is only 32 with 3 small children when her myeloma is diagnosed.
Corina, a farmer’s wife and a 1950’s mastectomy victim, remains on chemo for the long haul.
J. D.’s voyage with leukemia teaches Dr. Rahman the importance of affordable health care for cancer patients when J. D. loses his ranch job.
Mrs. Cooper, already “thin and frail,” and stricken with ovarian cancer in her senior years, reminds Dr. Rahman of his own grandmother in Pora Bari, a farming village 50 miles east of Calcutta.
Juan, both contrary and hostile at first, exposes Dr. Rahman to the dichotomy of some doctors’ attitudes toward VA treatment and the active military.
Although these patients’ stories and treatments are filled with medical terms and acronyms (CML, BMT, CMF, for example), the non-medically trained reader can navigate through diagnoses, trials, setbacks, and successes with the author and his patients. What emerges is an uncanny doctor-patient relationship, built on trust, confidence, and empathy.
Empathy Matters
Understanding and sharing feelings are the subjects of this book’s final and most gripping chapter, “Epilogue, Empathy Matters in Medicine.”
Empathy’s unique place in medicine caught Dr. Rahman off-guard when he “left the realm of the well and entered into the realm of the sick” himself. The phrases he heard after his own surgery — “won’t be easy” and “put up with the pain for a while” — acted as an epiphany, highlighting the travesty of silence that many of his professional colleagues often practice as a part of their bedside manners.
According to Dr. Rahman’s last words in Our Connected Lives, empathy should be as essential in treatment as technical knowledge and proficiency to “improve patient satisfaction and clinical outcome,” especially in cancer patients.
Always a proponent for aggressive medicine, Dr. Rahman’s voice has been featured in the New York Times,Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, Newsweek, and Dallas Morning News among others.
Closer to home, since retiring from West Texas Medical Associates (WTMA), Dr. Rahman serves as an adjunct professor of biology (medical humanities and ethics) at Angelo State University as well as holding positions at Austin College in Sherman, Texas and the San Antonio Health Science Center.
