Mammoth surgeon raises money for Doctors Without Borders
Book sales net $56,000 so far for the organization
Mammoth Hospital hand surgeon Dr. Richard Brown has completed a second medical thriller and not only is the book a riveting read and full of references to places and people in the Eastern Sierra that many locals will recognize, but sales from it and his previous book already have raised more than $56,000 for Doctors Without Borders, a non-profit medical mission group that works across the world to provide medical services in times of war or other humanitarian disasters.
The book, “Scalpel’s Plunge: End of the Party,” available on Amazon, follows the trials and tribulations of Dr. Erik “VJ” Brio, who narrowly escaped death (several times) in Brown’s last book, “Scalpel’s Cut,” which also is set partially in the Eastern Sierra.
This time, Brio and his wife and daughter get caught up in a globe-spanning crime spree that sprawls from the Eastern Sierra (Sierra Lakes in the book) to South Africa, with an infectious disease not-so-coincidentally beginning a romp through humanity in hot pursuit.
The book is a riveting mystery and adventure, and it is packed with enough local tidbits to appeal to everyone who lives here as well as enough medical details to warm the soul of doctors and surgeons everywhere.
Brown also makes reference to several odd events in the Eastern Sierra from the past few years; an accident near Conway Summit that was reputed to trigger a beheading of one of the victims, a heinous shooting of a couple whose bodies were left in the bushes on the side of U.S. Highway 395, and more.
He also makes it clear several of his characters are based on real people from Mammoth, such as Dr. Peter Clark (aka Clark Peters) and many more.
“I always like writing about Mammoth, and all the Post Op and Op staff at Mammoth Hospital are big climbers,” he said. “I have always wanted to climb, but I am afraid of heights, and they all helped me with the climbing scenes so a big shout out to the climbers at Mammoth, like Sandra Bowman, or Sara the Climber, or Peter Clark, aka Clark Peters, or Jason Lackey aka Lachlin Jasey,” he said.
But Brown, who divides his time between his practices in Mammoth and Del Mar, didn’t just write the book to raise money for his favorite charity. He said he was slated to work with the organization over the past few years but was thwarted by the global COVID shutdown so writing the book was another way to help, he said.
“Doctors Without Borders is the way that I have to try to help people that I do not know how to help,” Brown said. “They go to places like Sudan, the Congo, Ukraine. I will likely never go to those places. It’s a way for me to help.”
Brown said he wrote the book over the past few years for several reasons as noted above but also, yes, for the sheer fun of it.
In the meantime, he continues his practices in both Del Mar and Mammoth and there is a third book on the way.
“It will be set in Mammoth again, and, in the Middle East,” he said. “There is so much going on there ... I am going to set it there. I do not care that it’s not going to be on the New York Times bestseller, I just want to write it.”
Those interested in purchasing a book or to donate to Doctors Without Borders, go to https://www.scalpelscut.com