Tests of Character

Drawing by Suzanne Dunaway

“Mother And Baby In Intensive Care After Doctors' Violent Brawl In Delivery Room Delays Birth”

Laura Salpietro, 30, had been rushed to hospital after her waters broke, but as she lay on a bed in agony, doctors argued over whether to deliver her first child naturally or by caesarean. Amazingly, the row then became violent, with punches thrown while her horrified husband Matteo Molonia, 37, looked on, pleading for the medics to stop and help his wife.

– Daily Mail, byline Sicily, 2010

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The Italians I have known and loved are fun, funny, cynical, flirtatious, spontaneous, determined not to let their work interfere with their lives. It occurred to me, as I waited for the anesthesia to turn out the lights, that none of these were qualities I wanted when it came to my health care.

– Holly Brubach, New York Times Sunday Review, 2014

We all know what doctors are like. Compulsive sons of bitches, anal retentive, detached, perfectionist, tough on themselves, insufferable with others, models of dogged stick-to-it-iveness and preternatural calm. In Italy? Some yes, some no...

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