Sometimes Amazing Things Happen, Elizabeth Ford MD
Sometimes Amazing Things Happen, Elizabeth Ford MD
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Sometimes Amazing Things Happen
Heartbreak and Hope on the Bellevue Hospital Psychiatric Prison Ward

Author: Elizabeth Ford MD

Narrator: Bernadette Dunne

Unabridged: 8 hr 17 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/25/2017

Synopsis

Elizabeth Ford went through medical school unsure of where she belonged. It wasn’t until she did her psychiatry rotation that she found her calling—to care for one of the most vulnerable populations of mentally ill people, the inmates of New York City’s jails, including Rikers Island, who are so sick that they are sent to the Bellevue Hospital Prison Ward for care.These men were broken, without resources or support, and very ill. They could be violent, unpredictable, but they could also be funny and tender and needy. Mostly, they were human and they awakened in Ford a boundless empathy. Her patients made her a great doctor and a better person. While Ford was a psychiatrist at Bellevue she became a wife and a mother. In her book she shares her struggles to balance her personal and professional lives, to care for her children and her patients, and to maintain the empathy that is essential to her practice—all in the face of a complex institution, an exhausting workload, and the deeply emotionally taxing nature of her work. Ford brings humor, grace, and humanity to the lives of the patients in her care and in beautifully rendered prose illuminates the inner workings (and failings) of our mental health and criminal justice systems.

About Elizabeth Ford MD

Elizabeth Ford, MD, is the chief of psychiatry for Correctional Health Services for New York City’s Health and Hospitals and a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine. She is a recognized national expert in issues related to incarceration and mental illness and teaches extensively about these topics. She was formerly the director of forensic psychiatry at Bellevue Hospital, specializing in the treatment of individuals with serious mental illness in the criminal justice system, and the director of the NYU Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship Training Program. She is the author of multiple peer-reviewed academic articles and book chapters, as well as the editor of Landmark Cases in Forensic Psychiatry, a book about seminal US Supreme Court cases related to psychiatry.

About Bernadette Dunne

Bernadette Dunne is the winner of numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards and has twice been nominated for the prestigious Audie Award. She studied at the Royal National Theatre in London and the Studio Theater in Washington, DC, and has appeared at the Kennedy Center and off Broadway.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jean on September 27, 2017

This book covers Dr. Ford’s psychiatry rotation in medical school. She says she discovered her calling on that rotation. She went on to become Chief of Psychiatry for Correctional Health Services in New York City. She worked at Bellevue Hospital and Riker’s Island. Ford discusses the mentally ill in......more

Goodreads review by Rachel on November 22, 2022

The author has worked with severely mentally ill prisoners for many years. This book is about when she worked in male-only Bellevue wards serving prisoners from Rikers Island. Her stories of these men are touching but mostly horrifying. The care she could give them was very limited. There were priso......more

Goodreads review by Macaira on December 27, 2019

An important read. The author provides an interesting perspective on the U.S. criminal justice system as well as on mental health and healthcare. Equally as depressing as it is uplifting. Her writing style was not the easiest to read but the content made it worth it.......more

Quotes

“Sometimes Amazing Things Happen possesses the power to open eyes, change attitudes, and affirm the worth of society’s most afflicted and forgotten individuals.” Wally Lamb, #1 New York Times bestelling author

“Testifies to the kind of love that physicians can offer: a dogged, practical devotion…Ford is human here, and thus imperfect. She describes burning out, her failings as a parent…The story is graphic and real but, as in most physician memoirs, details are withheld.” New York Times

“Ford writes with gravity about her experience as a psychiatrist treating the incarcerated population…She is also able to write with hope about moments of kindness and small victories that may bring larger ones for these men ." Electric Literature

“A rare insider’s view of what happens in a mental hospital and on a psychiatric prison ward…a must read.” Benjamin Sadock, MD, NYU School of Medicine

“An unadorned exploration of how a doctor maintains hope and perseveres in the face of overwhelming human and institutional dysfunction.” Marvin Swartz, MD, Duke University School of Medicine

“As the tales unfold, readers are carried away on the amazing journey displaying the resilience of the human spirit and the chance for healing and hope.” Debra A. Pinals, MD, clinical professor of psychiatry, University of Michigan

Awards

  • Electric Literature
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