On the set of Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures, Dr. Vincent Lam (left) sees eye-to-eye with Mayko Nguyen as Shawn Ashmore looks on. It’s amusing that Lam’s short story collection of the same name has turned into a TV series – because Lam (MD 1999) doesn’t own a TV. “I’m what is known as a late adopter of technology,” he quips.
Lam’s short stories, which chronicle the moral dilemmas that physicians face, often focus on Fitz (played by Ashmore) and Ming (played by Nguyen). In 2006, Lam became the youngest and only first-time author to win the Scotiabank Giller Prize, Canada’s largest annual fiction award. These days, when not practising in Toronto East General Hospital’s emergency room, he is writing his first novel, Cholon, Near Forgotten. It’s about Percival Chen, a character inspired by Lam’s grandfather, who was a headmaster in Vietnam. Chen is a character in the TV series, too. In his final days, when he is very ill, Chen has to choose between ancient remedies and his grandson’s high-tech interventions. The eight-episode series is on the Movie Network and Movie Central beginning in January.
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No Responses to “ Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures ”
My daughter is reading Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures and mentioned a few scenes she thought I’d appreciate as a family doctor. She was right.
What struck me wasn’t just the medicine — it was how clearly the book shows something we often overlook: every character is moved by forces they didn’t choose. Their drive, their doubt, the moments of collapse and the flashes of courage -- all of it unfolds the same way thoughts arise in any of us.
Seen through that lens, the book isn’t about heroes or failures. It’s about human beings navigating conditions they never designed. The competitiveness, the tenderness, the exhaustion — these aren’t moral qualities. They’re involuntary responses of a nervous system under pressure.
And when you look at it that way, something softens.
You start to notice: Oh, this is what a human does when they’re stretched. This is how a mind protects itself. This is how a heart tries to stay open, even when it can’t. It becomes less about judging the characters and more about recognizing ourselves in them — the automatic nature of thought, the way reactions simply appear, the quiet tenderness underneath.
Funny how a book your kid reads ends up becoming a small reminder of presence. And a reminder that we’re all just unfolding, moment by moment, without choosing any of it.