Physician emphasizes AIDS patients' needs

Abraham Verghese can certainly attest to the pain and suffering that infiltrates the lives of AIDS patients. The Ethiopian-born doctor has devoted his life to the study and the treatment of infectious diseases, particularly HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Verghese spoke to students and faculty Friday night about his own experiences as an "AIDS doctor," all of which are captured in his new book, My Own Country: A Doctor's Story. Held in connection with World AIDS Day, Verghese's speech and the book signing following it were organized by a host of student groups, including Connaissance and Facilitating Learning About Sexual Health. Verghese said his motivation for the book was driven by a hope to create a true picture of the way AIDS affects the individual. "The cold language of science doesn't capture the tragic grief of these families," he told the audience of more than 150. Verghese spent his late childhood and medical school years in India, moving later to Boston for his residency and fellowship in infectious diseases. He then set up practice in Johnsonville, Tenn., the town in which My Own Country is set. Verghese opened his practice in 1985, a year he calls "an interesting time for AIDS." "We were just beginning to see young men with rare and strange infections, which led us to believe that their immune systems were breaking down," he said. At first, Verghese said, he would see one or two AIDS patients every other year. "I remember the exhilarating moment when we realized what the problem was, followed by the extreme scope of what we had to deal with," he said. Verghese said he felt like he was dealing with two diseases at once. "One was the virus itself -- the other was the metaphor for shame and secrecy it represented," he explained. Verghese's book focuses on one of his patients, who he said he came to know quite well. Through that young man, Verghese learned much about how AIDS affects the family. Verghese's book also deals with the exodus of gay men and women who are leaving home to "find themselves." "The problem is, as they're finding themselves, the disease finds them," he said. They are then forced to return home to their families, but are really returning to that which they had desperately wanted to escape, Verghese explained. "Ironically, in these stories of loss, there is an element of triumph and victory," he said. "We are all going to die, but when you find out you have HIV, it becomes a primary thought? and you start searching for the meaning of life." People tend to look for meaning in places it can not be found, he added. "These young men found it not in fame or fortune or good looks, but in the successful relationships they had with family, friends and lovers," Verghese said. According to Verghese, there is a distinct difference in the thoughts of a young person dying of AIDS from those of someone dying of another disease. "So many of these people already had a big cross to bear," he said. "People were already saying that [gays] deserved the disease. The metaphor of secrecy and shame is not the same in any other disease." Verghese said his life has certainly been affected by the patients he has treated. He closed by reading a letter that a man dying of AIDS wrote to his mother. The letter brought many in the audience to tears.