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SERIES

A Certain Urgency: Adventures in Canadian Medicine

A Certain Urgency: Adventures in Canadian Medicine
'More and more Canadians in their sixties are getting their first inside look at the Medicare system created when we were teenagers.' Illustration by Jessie Donaldson

Acclaimed playwright and author John MacLachlan Gray reports from the depths of his bowels and within the medical system dedicated to keeping him fancy (and polyp) free. His three-part medical memoir of a minor procedure gone sideways includes reflections on mortality, dependence on the kindness of dedicated strangers, and the vagaries of superbugs. It's a frank, funny rumination on the parallel universe of a hospital, ''the ultimate nudist colony. Even your insides are apparent for all to see.''

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In This Series

A Certain Urgency

A Certain Urgency

What John MacLachlan Gray learned in hospital about angels and polyps. A true life comedy in three acts. Here's the first.

John MacLachlan Gray / 15 Dec 2014


A Balloon among Angels

A Balloon among Angels

John MacLachlan Gray's memoir of a particular polyp and what ensues. Second in a three-act comedy.

John MacLachlan Gray / 16 Dec 2014


Attack of the Super Bugs

Attack of the Super Bugs

John MacLachlan Gray's memoir of the innards life of a Canadian baby boomer. The final chapter.

John MacLachlan Gray / 17 Dec 2014