Creekside Books & Coffee featured a special guest on Aug. 26 in the form of doctor and author Louis Profeta. A native of Indianapolis, Indiana, Profeta is touring to discuss his book, The Patient in Room Nine Says He’s God, a collection of essays. For him this is not extra work; he claims to enjoy every moment of his book discussions.
The Creekside Bookstore had nearly every seat filled for Profeta’s visit, a crowd of readers anxious to hear the man’s words with their own ears. The doctor/author discussed his book as well as past experiences of his working in the Emergency Room.
Those who attended the discussion learned things about the ER that they never would’ve expected. The most interesting thing I learned was that the ER can be the scene of many hate crimes. Profeta explained how the ER is the place that brings people of all denominations into one closed space and forces them to sit across from each other. Aside from the deaths that already occur in hospitals, the ER has been the scene of many murders as well.
Not only does Profeta have to deal with the your basic ER issues, but he brought up a situation where he had just lost a patient and was immediately confronted by a woman having to wait to have her hurt foot looked at. But he reacted cool and professional and apologized to the woman for taking up her time, claiming the staff was very busy and not mentioning the recently deceased patient. He says he simply tries to do his job as best he can among all of the chaos.
Having not read the book myself, I asked people after the discussion about their thoughts. One opinion I seemed to get from everyone was that the book “makes you think.”
It’s is a collection of essays of true accounts from the Profeta ER, and it also follows his personal spiritual quest to find God in his workplace. The concept alone interested me, and from hearing Profeta speak he seems like a very down-to-earth and humble man. I imagine his writing style is very similar.
The discussion went for a little over an hour but Profeta held my attention the entire time. Near the end he asked the audience for questions. The night concluded with a book signing where some had the chance for short one-on-one conversations with the man.
The book discussion made me excited to try and pick up The Patient in Room Nine Says He’s God as soon as I get the chance. Profeta is an honest man I could listen to for hours.
