BOOKS

Renegade M.D.: A Doctor's Stories from the Streets

Dr. Susan Partovi first experienced poverty medicine volunteering at a dump site in Tijuana during high school. There, she recognized the need for all people to have access to quality medical care. Over the years, she has worked in various facilities around Los Angeles County, incorporating her renegade method of going the extra mile for her patients. As Medical Director of Homeless Health Care Los Angeles, she works to provide a safety net of care for the underserved skid row community and surrounding neighborhoods.
Recognized internationally as a leader in street medicine, Dr. Partovi started documenting her patients’ stories so that others could hear their voices. By addressing the practical and moral considerations when treating each patient, Dr. Partovi developed her philosophies about what it means to be a “good doctor.” Along the way, she began to understand how her personal ethics evolved―from a challenging childhood and complicated relationships with her parents, through professional hurdles―often, she had to push against a system that doesn’t always put the patient first.
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 A riveting and sometimes radical look at the medical ramifications of homelessness.

“The author…brings readers a narrative that begins as an immigrant success story and grows into a chronicle of treating people who live on the streets. Throughout the book, Partovi notably uses the term PEH (people experiencing homelessness) rather than referring to “the homeless,” emphasizing the humanity of the people she deals with as a doctor. When discussing the issues that both contribute to and are exacerbated by homelessness, the author emphasizes the roles of drug addiction and mental illness, detailing the ways that living unhoused complicates many medical conditions. Throughout this memoir, Partovi offers a sobering and disturbing (but also hopeful) look at the challenges of treating the unhoused, including many individual anecdotes about
the people living on the streets—their struggles, tragedies, and, occasionally, their successes in dealing with homelessness and the medical problems that beset them.”

—Kirkus Reviews

 

"The author passionately argues against the current limitations on the involuntary commitment of people with mental illness; in her view, such limitations result in too many people with serious psychological issues ending up in jail or on the street instead of in treatment: “Would you let your five-year-old child decide if he or she needed to be hospitalized, or whether to take life-saving medication? The severely mentally ill or demented are often only capable of problem-solving at that developmental level.” The book offers a thoughtful exploration of why some people are noncompliant with medical treatment, but it noticeably excludes race as a factor in distrust of the medical system. Still, Partovi’s compassion for her patients shines through, even when she expresses frustration with them and with the systems that keep them from getting the help they need. The book provides an important perspective on treating an unusually vulnerable population in American society. A riveting and sometimes radical look at the medical ramifications of homelessness."
— Kirkus Reviews
“In this fascinating memoir, Partovi details her life as a street doctor who has devoted her medical career to treating society’s forgotten citizens… Partovi’s devotion and humanity shine through every page… Like all good physicians, she learns from her mistakes and fights for her patients, even when it means challenging a system that seems, at times, corrupt and unyielding.”
— BookLife Prize

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“Renegade, pioneer, inspirational crusader. In her work and her writing, Dr. Susan Partovi is a voice for the sick and dying, driven by both compassion and moral outrage. She speaks for the voiceless and calls us to our better selves. Whether on the ground in LA’s Skid Row or on the streets of Haiti, Partovi is present and unwavering in her mission of care and service.”
— Steve LopezLos Angeles Times journalist, author (Independence Day: What I Learned About Retirement, From Some Who’ve Done It and Some Who Never Will, and The Soloist)
“Dr. Susan Partovi walks where others fear to tread. With her huge heart, turquoise jewelry and matching eye shadow, she works with the most marginal, vulnerable people on Skid Row every week. I’ve watched her deal with patients that had very visceral physical and mental issues, but she approached them all with deep compassion and a lack of judgement – which allowed them to trust her and get the medical treatment they needed. She talks to each patient with grace and humor – and makes their experience, against all odds, fun. Her stories touch on the human condition in a very human way. Prepare to be amazed.”
— Catherine HardwickeDirector (Thirteen, Twilight, and “Elbows Deep” a short film about Dr. Susan Partovi — part of the anthology Tell it Like a Woman)
“Dr. Susan Partovi’s wisdom, humor, and compassion are the special sauce that lifts her profession from medicine to ministering. Susan is a trailblazer, tending to the poor, homeless, and ill from Skid Row to Haiti. Saint Susan, perhaps? Joining Florence Nightingale, Mother Teresa, and Clara Barton, Susan is boots on the ground, bringing hope to the hopeless and truth to the saying: “Blessed are those who heal the sick.”
— Marcia Gay HardenAcademy Award-winning actor

A memoir, coming soon!

In 2009, Dr. Susan Partovi traveled with medical students from UCLA to offer medical services to the impoverished in Haiti. Witnessing firsthand the trauma of severe poverty and the effects of malnutrition on the children had a profound effect on her. Ten days after returning home, a devastating earthquake struck the island nation, and she felt called to return immediately.

Each year, Dr. Partovi travels to Haiti and treats a population in desperate need of medical care. She cofounded H.E.A.L., a nonprofit which provides medical supplies and medical students, and collaborates with local doctors to continue primary care in the Haitian village they’ve adopted. “This is Haiti,” a memoir-in-progress, tells the stories of these patients and the people who support the effort to bring caring and conscientious medicine to those enduring poverty.

Dr. Susan Partovi

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