The Narrow Space: A Pediatric Oncologist, His Jewish, Muslim, and Christian Patients, and a Hospital in Jerusalem” By Elisha Waldman

My daughter Lily helps raise money and awareness for research to help cure pediatric cancer. Many people ask me how she got involved in this subject and the answer is simple: social media. Sometimes, wonderful connections can happen that way. She read on Instagram and Facebook about a terminally ill little girl who subsequently died, and followed how her parents created a program in her memory called the Kyle Rowand Foundation. It raises money directed toward Neuroblastoma research. The subject of pediatric cancer and palliative medicine does not speak to everyone the same way, but for Lily and Dr. Elisha Waldman, it is a subject for which they are ready to fight for. “The Narrow Space” by Dr. Waldman is a beautifully written memoir that depicts, up close, what it is like to deal with young patients and their parents struggling to manage aggressive cancers. In this case, Waldman took his oncology practice to Israel, a country where he had roots. This book chronicles his journey as attending physician at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center.  Despite the economic and religious difference among his patients, their heartbreaking will to live and pleas not suffer at the end of life is universal. After seven years, Waldman decides to come back to America and build a new life for himself in Chicago. But it is clear from every page, that his time in Israel made him not only a more experienced doctor, but also a more patient and compassionate one, too.  To purchase this book on Amazon click here.