A career in medicine can contain almost every human emotion imaginable. Fear. Relief. Grief. Confusion. Hope. Frustration. And, sometimes, laughter at moments when laughter seems least expected.
Craig Troop, M.D. experienced all of it.
In There is a Bomb in My Vagina: Short Medical Stories from 45 Years in Practice, Dr. Troop looks back on more than four and a half decades in clinical medicine, first as an emergency physician and later as an anesthesiologist. His stories are drawn from real events as he remembers them, offering readers an unusually candid look at the people, crises, absurdities and lessons that shaped his career.
Some stories are instantly unforgettable.
The title story begins when emergency medical services radio ahead about a 66-year-old woman who insists that her gynecologist has placed a bomb inside her vagina. The claim sounds impossible, yet the patient believes it, her family initially believes it and even the EMS crew is curious to see the alleged device. What follows is a strange, funny and revealing encounter involving psychiatric illness, family misunderstanding and an ER doctor trying to make sense of a situation no textbook could have prepared him for.
Then there are stories where humor gives way to genuine danger.
Dr. Troop recounts treating a critically ill three-year-old boy with acute epiglottitis, a condition threatening to close the child’s airway. The case becomes a race against time as the team works to secure his breathing before the situation becomes fatal. The boy survives, but the memory remains with Dr. Troop decades later.
In another dramatic chapter, he recalls the aftermath of the 1985 Delta Flight 191 crash near Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. One survivor arrived at his hospital appearing remarkably unharmed after the aircraft broke apart. The man had essentially fallen out of the sky and walked away without a scratch a story so extraordinary that it sounds fictional, yet it became part of Dr. Troop’s medical life.
But some of the book’s most memorable moments are also its funniest.
A frightened patient recovering from surgery asks, “Am I dying?” His nurse thinks he is asking, “Am I done?” and repeatedly reassures him with an enthusiastic “Yes.” The misunderstanding sends the patient toward thoughts of his final moments while nearby staff struggle not to laugh. Dr. Troop uses stories like this to explore how humor can become a coping mechanism for professionals who spend years surrounded by stress, trauma and death.
That balance between comedy and seriousness is what gives There is a Bomb in My Vagina its character.
Dr. Troop does not present medicine as glamorous or heroic at every turn. He presents it as human. Doctors make judgments, question themselves, laugh, grieve, improvise and sometimes carry memories for the rest of their lives.
By the end, his lessons reach far beyond medicine. His four guiding principles Show Up, Do Good Work, Shut Up and Go Home reflect a lifetime of learning about responsibility, humility, communication and balance.
For readers who enjoy true medical stories, dark humor, human drama and hard-earned wisdom, Dr. Craig Troop’s extraordinary career offers all of them in one unforgettable collection.
Available Now On Amazon: https://a.co/d/01DIRVsP
