Dose of real life:
A top doctor’s memoirs about his game-changing days at a public hospital form the basis for the medical series New Amsterdam. Jenny Cooney Carrillo reports.
Doctor’s memoir basis of new
medical drama.
Dr Max Goodwin is brilliant, charming and has also been diagnosed with cancer when he is hired as the new chief medical director at New York’s oldest public hospital. The TV medical drama New Amsterdam, the hospital of the series, stars Ryan Eggold (The Blacklist) as a man with a lot on his plate – and it would be hard to believe if it wasn’t all true. Based on Dr Eric Manheimer’s best-selling memoir, Twelve Patients: Life & Death At Bellevue Hospital, the series draws on Manheimer’s own experiences for 15 years as the chief medical director at the understaffed, underfunded and under-appreciated Bellevue hospital in New York City – the only one in the world capable of treating Ebola patients, prisoners from Rikers Island, and the President of the United States all under one roof. “The origin of the book was my experience at the hospital with all the patients and their stories,” says Manheimer, who is also a consultant and co-producer on the series. During that time, he was also diagnosed and treated for throat cancer under that same roof, and his TV alter-ego is also quick to acknowledge that diagnosis in the pilot episode. Fresh from The Blacklist and its spin-off, The Blacklist: Redemption, Eggold couldn’t resist portraying a real-life hero. “Eric made a lot of changes for the better in
the medical system and really pushed back against bureaucracy to help people and look at problems in different ways.
“I loved the freshness and humour and pace as Max moves through the hospital dealing with these extraordinarily high-stakes situations, sometimes losing control but always handling it all with humour,” he says.
Trading in his gun for a stethoscope, Eggold jokes that he was also following in the family business.
“My whole family is in the medical professional,” he explains. “My folks are doctors, my sister is a nurse and they actually do it for real so I have the most respect for them doing that.
“Even though we’ve seen a lot of medical dramas, there was something new about this one because we all become complacent and accept things are what they are and they can’t change.
“But then we meet this character, who is showing that change in the world is achievable, so it’s an exciting and emotional idea to connect with.”
In the opening episode of the show, Dr Goodwin also holds a staff meeting on his first day on the job and publicly fires an entire department.
“Every department that places billing above care will be terminated,” he says to a room full of stunned doctors.
“We all feel like the system is too big to change but, guess what, we are the system. And we need to change. Let’s get into some trouble. Let’s be doctors.”
Eggold loved that particular scene.
“Eric is a really inspiring guy who is not interested in getting credit for the things he’s doing or protecting the status quo and the way things used to be done,” he says.
“The number of things happening at any given moment in that hospital is overwhelming because they handle prisoners, diplomats and even a psychiatric ward so he’s always moving and it’s especially exhausting for me playing him.”
The show’s creator, David Schulner, was inspired to write the medical drama around the time of the 2016 Presidential election.
“Everyone was talking about immigration and healthcare and having passionate conversations at the dinner table and I wanted to find a way to channel that into a show and then I found Eric’s book,” he says.
“He came into that hospital at its lowest point in its 264-year history and it was his 15-year struggle to restore it to its glory that made me see the way into this story.
“It’s also a public hospital,” he adds, “so we get to reflect both the patient population and the doctors who choose to work twice as hard for half as much money as they could make in a private hospital, but by making that very altruistic, hopeful choice, we can feel hopeful too.”
“We all feel like the system is too big to change but, guess what, we are the system. And we need to change.”
– Ryan Eggold as Dr Goodwin