Review of Medical Diver

[Favour Amarachi Mgbeoji]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Medical Diver" by Len Starbeck.]

---

5 out of 5 stars

---

Share This Review

---

Medical Diver is a memoir written by Len Starbeck. It was divided into nineteen chapters and written in two hundred and nine pages. This book answers in entirety who a medical diver is, their roles in the medical field, and the training required to attain such a position.

Len gives an in-depth insight into his life as a medical diver, highlighting the strenuous training he went through and the different countries and projects he undertook while in the Navy. Even after his retirement, he re-enlisted as a surgical nurse. This shows that his career is beyond the fee but is one of passion. This book takes a prospective reader to different stages of his life where he was saddled with one responsibility or the other. He described all the technical training required in clear terms at each stage. Some were life-threatening, but it took a lot of zeal and self-will to come out victorious. He was a devoted man who, in the course of his journey, took many roles, including being a medical diver, surgical nurse, scrub tech, realtor, and teacher, amongst others. Little wonder he got to the rank of E-8 and retired as Command Senior Chief. His journey was elaborately detailed in this book.

One highly commendable fact about this book is the author’s story. It was very intentional. His story depicts the life of a man who is very intentional about learning and teaching. He went through tedious and strenuous training, was admitted to several schools, and even enrolled in emergency courses, all to enrich his wealth of knowledge. He had many slabs to his title, which included HMC/ DV/ IDC/ PJ. His story about working in Afghanistan and treating them was very inspiring to read. This book is very educational as it tries to explain some concepts like AGE, DCS, Vaginoplasties, and a lot of others in simple and clear terms so that even a layman will understand their causes and ways to cure them.

It is very pertinent to state that all his theories, training, and lessons are apt. None are fallacious or unproven. This gives a prospective reader first-class information from an experienced person. All acronyms used were given their full meaning at one point. The pictures attached to the book were very pleasing to see. They created a background scenario in my mind. The book can also be termed a motivational one. The last chapter, where he recounted being expelled from high school in 1970, could have disoriented him. However, it propelled him to be a better person. After reading this book, I can boldly explain to a third party who a medical diver is and what their job description entails. I believe the author achieved his aim in penning down the content of this book. I had a good read all through the pages.

My only critique of this book which is subjective, is that it was not a chronological story, but this is justified based on the fact that it centered majorly on answering the question of what a medical diver is using his life experience as an illustration. So, I can't hold this as an objective negative aspect. However, it is worth mentioning.

I will rate this book 5 out of 5 stars. My reason is that it was very insightful, educational, and all-encompassing. The negative aspect I found did not affect my overall satisfaction with the book. Also, this book was professionally edited; I found just two errors in it.

I will recommend this book majorly to all medical practitioners, most especially to prospective medical divers and adults who have an interest in medical-themed stories.

******
Medical Diver
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon

[Yasmine M]

The title pulled me in, I wanted to know what a medical diver does exactly. It looks like there are many technical words along the pages. People is the medical field will certainly like this book.