It is quite common to see a doctor leaning over the computer, tapping away at the keyboard: the patient’s medical history, operation reports, prescriptions, scientific articles are written down in words. And there are also novels, poems, plays. On April 23 – World Book Day – we had a great opportunity to remember doctors who wrote and are still writing books. While for some, creativity is a therapy, a means of self-help, for others it is the greatest passion, which forced them to renounce even the career of a doctor.
Practice shows that writing is a favorite activity of representatives of many professions. On the shelves of bookstores, you can find books written by educators, businessmen, athletes, and opinion makers. Also medical. A large group of doctors have long been famous for their mastery of the pen: from doctors Jonas Basanavičius and Vincos Kudirkas, who created the state, to paramedic Gabriele Petkevičaitė-Bite and pulmonologist Filomena Taunytė. 55 years ago, doctor Eduardas Selelionis, the author of the famous poem “Tenderness”, organized the first “Spring of Poetry” for doctors. Since then, the annual poetry festival has featured many talented medical writers. Laisvūnė Petkevičienė, the multiple winner of the medical “Poetry Spring” and the founder of the Lithuanian Society of Dietitians, Laisvūnė Petkevičienė, whose “Last Tango” verses were heard in the repertoire of Stasios Povilaitis for many years, achieved great creative success. Algimantas Jasulaitis, doctor of sciences, forensic physician also published poetry selections. “I don’t call it poetry. Tests it is. But sometimes it’s enough to write one poem and it can become a classic,” he says.
Inspiration – people
Jurga Rudalevičienė, a former orthopedist-traumatologist, is also not indifferent to poetry, today she is better known to readers as Jurga Slanka, a writer of the young generation. She claims that every year she gives a lecture about what has happened in “Spring of Poetry”, who has debuted, what new winds are blowing. However, she only composed poems in her teens. Today, the woman is writing her seventh novel. “I have had a habit of writing since I was a teenager. Writing is like a dialogue with yourself. Spread out, take comfort, consider, change, be happy, brag. “For me, writing is a convenient way to get rid of excess emotions,” says the writer. The interviewer claims that she is not attached to the genre – she likes to weave elements of detective, mysticism, love, drama and necessarily humor in her creations. “When I write, I delve into the relationships between people. I like watching people, imagining what they talk about, what they are angry about, how they find and lose each other. People are my great inspiration. I try to capture as many different characters as possible – from successful, high achievers to socially vulnerable, balancing on the edge of the abyss. I am interested in the current affairs of the disabled – one of my children was born with Down’s syndrome, so I do not rule out that someday I will mature on this topic as well”, says J. Slanka.
I miss the hospital
The writer can be proud not only of a large collection of published books, but also of a large family – the voices of even six children can be heard at home. “The family is both an obstacle and an encouragement to write. If it weren’t for the children, I would probably still be working in a hospital and not think about novels. As my family grows, I have to carefully plan when I can sneak away for an hour. I usually write in the mornings, then the older ones are at school and the little ones are being looked after by the nanny. During the holidays, I get help from my elders and I earn another hour in exchange for the promised entertainment…” – smiles the interviewer.
Writer Jurga Slanka claims that medicine still plays an important role in her life today: the characters in her books often have to stay in hospitals. “I often dream that I am on duty in the reception department. The patient is brought in, I take an X-ray and… I don’t understand anything. There are feelings of shame and guilt – you will have to seek someone’s help… It was not easy to leave medicine, but it is probably too difficult to return. Especially not seriously – half a leg. In my novels, I keep returning the heroes and returning them to hospitals. It’s hard to escape. I guess I’m longing after all.”
Wrote on the social network
World Book Day is also special for another interviewee – Kaunas Kliniki Blood Center doctor Rasa Lembergieni. Twelve years ago, she published her debut book, A Woman’s Diary, which was hugely popular.
“It all started when there were painful changes in my life. It was a difficult experience for me and the children. I needed to speak up. I sat down at the computer and wrote two posts on the social network. Even I was surprised at how easy it was for me to write then, even though I had no writing experience until then. From that day on, I couldn’t stop writing,” recalls Rasa Lembergienė, a doctor at the Blood Center of Kaunas Clinics.
“You described my life”, “how did you read my mind?” – the abundance of such comments encouraged the doctor to continue the blog on the social network. “I just wrote what I felt: about myself, my experiences, what I was disappointed in, what I expected from life, what I wanted to become as a woman – not as a wife, not as a friend, not as a daughter. I shared this with other women. Posts turned out to be simple and acceptable, responsive. The women’s community began to grow rapidly”, says R. Lembergienė, whose social network group “Women’s diary” created by almost one and a half hundred thousand followers today.
Experiences help to write
“Soon I got a call from the publishing house and offered to publish the book. Its concept is unusual. This book is a gift for a woman. Even on the first page, there is this introduction: “I am giving it to you because you are… special.” I gave the books to my colleagues, the more sensitive ones even cried. They say, it is written about me here. Many women identify with it,” says the doctor. The book “A Woman’s Diary” was a great success – as soon as it was published, it entered the top three most read. “The key was simplicity and sincerity. The most interesting thing is that you wrote to me perfectly when life was in flux. When life has settled down, there are no more emotional ebbs and flows, she no longer writes like that, – laughs the doctor. – Now I write differently. I have to think carefully, search for words.”
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