In "The Life and Times of Benjamin Wiggins, M.D.," the prequel to Medical Grail, Ben Wiggins, an irascible octogenarian, pits his wits and spunk against a group of private doctors and administrators who seize an opportunity to use tax funds to purchase a CT scanner for their tiny hospital. Outraged by their brazen attempt to rip-off the community, Ben ignores their threats of lawsuits and libelous assaults while fighting them in the press and in Town Hall. Evelyn Cooper, his companion and confidant, and Peter Henry, a lifelong friend, join him in his battle to expose the hoax that will double the cost of heathcare to the poor citizens of Whitney, a small, poor town in the middle of Arizona's Sonoran Desert.

"I've fallen down and can't get up " Congratulations. You are now about to enter the Twilight Zone. It is a place of mind and matter, of test and retest, of drugs you cannot name, and of unnecessary, painful procedures. It is your own personal journey through the space and time of modern medicine. Medical Grail is the story of Robert Bascom, a young, idealistic physician who had retreated to a small mountain top village in Italy to mourn the death of his young wife. While drinking wine in his small cottage he receives a call from the administrator of a small hospital in the middle of the Arizona desert. Corruption, incompetence and malpractice are rampant in his facility, he complains, and he pleads with Bascom to return to the US and help him correct the situation. Bascom agrees, and on his first night in town, while still suffering from jet-lag and a few too many drinks, gets an urgent call from a nurse and races to the hospital emergency room. Once in the ER he sees a physician in a white coat calmly and disinterestedly reading a newspaper at the nurses station. He turns and sees two patients in the empty ward: one is asleep on a stretcher in the corner of the room, the other, a man almost as white as the sheet covering him, is being worked on by a nurse and an EMT in a bloody uniform. He goes to the stretcher and while doing his best to save the man, asks the nurse, "Did you ask Dr. Perkins to help with this patient?" "Yes," she replies, "but he won't treat Mexicans." Medical Grail, a fictional story based upon true events, is the tale of a doctor who has traveled with patients who have made the trip, some successfully, others less so, through the maze of modern medicine. It will horrify you.

DO YOU KNOW HOW TO AVOID: - dangerous medications and therapies? - unwarranted laboratory tests? - unnecessary hospitalizations? - unessential and possibly dangerous surgical and medical procedures? COULD YOU: - intelligently discuss a health problem with your physician? - participate actively and knowledgeably in the diagnostic decision-making? - confidently refuse to undergo a suggested therapeutic regimen based upon your current knowledge of medicine? If you answered "no" to any of the above questions, you need HOW TO BE A PATIENT AND LIVE TO TELL THE TALE Whether you have traditional fee for service, managed care, or no insurance at all, this book will teach you how to protect your health and health dollars.