Before I Sleep

 The title of the book is gotten from a line in Robert Frost's poem "Promises To Keep". Dr. Tom A. Dooley is a great admirer of the American poet's works and the poem happens to be one of his favourites. The title is hence metaphorical,symbolizing a sleep deeper than sleep,death.

What would you do if you knew your days were numbered,perhaps a year or less than that? What would it feel trying to fight death by working yourself out before the clock stops ticking? Would you devote your last days to a holiday in a cosy place or would you rather serve humanity till illness incapacitates you?

Dr. Thomas A. Dooley is a young,tall,lean handsome Navy Doctor,who has recently been awarded a Legion of Merit for the part he played singularly in the U.S.A Navy's heroic peacetime operation "Passage To Freedom" in Indo-China.   The Biography has been compiled by close associates of Dr. Tom,those who worked with him and related with him on a daily basis. They all have one thing in common in their retelling of Dr. Tom's life; A strong admiration of a man who left his country to go and serve as a doctor in a sick,poverty stricken and superstitious society of South East Asia (Vietnam,Cambodia,Laos, and during his last days,India)

The biography is divided in seven parts which happen to be the seven major seasons in Europe. Symbolically,these seasons signifies the changes in Tom's life,from the time we are introduced to the novel to the time he peacefully dies in Memorial Hospital,New York.

Part One; Summer and Fall(1959)Dr. Tom Dooley is admitted in Memorial hospital in the summer of  1959 to undergo a major surgery. There is confusion all over the hospital as people talk about the ailing jungle doctor. The young doctor agrees to have an interview on his sick bed with CBS-TV for two major reasons. To dimistify the narratives sorrounding cancer and its patients as a sentence to death and to appeal to well wishers to continue donating to Medico( his company) which helps the sick in Laos,Vietnam. He also allows the TV to broadcast his surgery live and this touches millions of people who generously contribute to his course. After taking out a sample of cancerous cells,it is concluded that Tom is suffering from Melanoma, a very malignant type of cancer but also rare.  The doctor feigns strength even after the surgery but acknowledges that a little apprehension and discomfort must be felt after a major operation. From this operation,the young doctor knows that his goose is fried and it is a matter of time before it is eaten. It is him therefore against the clock. He hopes he would live for six or so more years but being a doctor,he knows too well that the chances are smaller than the needle's eye. He quickly regains his strength and flies back to Asia to continue helping his patients.

Part Two; Winter (1960)

Dr. Tom is facing problems in trying to treat the people due to lack of drugs and proper means of transport. There are people who have promised him a small old plane 'Piper Apache' . He has been using a jeep to go round villages but the jeep is not efficient in delivering drugs in the hilly areas of Himalayas and aid from the U.S.  The Doctor has now recruited many young people who are looking for experience inn the medical field from the U.S and other parts of the world. He insists unorthodoxically that Medico is not a place for people who are willing to amass wealth in their profession but those who are ready to go out and give their all with little returns.  The daily case load of patients increases by day and by the time the doctors wake up every morning,they find long queues of patients waiting for them with cases of malaria,typhoid,tuberculosis and abstetric cases. All this the Doctor does as his health deteriorates. Paul Hellmuth says this about Tom "......one night after long working hoursi was awakened by hushed voices of Tom and Earl Rhine talking to a young man who i recognised as son of Wong,old and emaciated Chinese who sold peanuts and Mekong whisky. Dooley had been treating an advanced case of Wong's tuberculosis. 'He's hopeless' Tom said,'All we can give him is palliative care'' they went to treat the old man at 3 am and came back when the sun was rising to continue with the cases.

Part 3; Spring (1960)

Dr . Tom continues to expand the services of Medico. By now they have camps in Laos, Mung  Singh. He worked here as a navy officer and therefore has many friends. Among them is Madan Vuthi-Ngai who runs a children's home of displaced kids. The orphanage is a home to more than one thousand children whom Madam Ngai sources help for from different people...

Part 7; The Fall

Dr. Tom Dooley finally is incapacitated by the disease and he takes his final long flight from Laos to United States. On the plane,the young Doctor is in indescribable pain,a pain which scares the flight attendants. They try to make his flight as comfortable as they can by adjusting his seat and even allowing him to lie on the floor against the safety rules. When the plane touches down,the doctor alights without any help. He spends some few days  with his family and later,he passes on. This is a story of passion,strong will which breaks the conspiracies sorrounding cancer and its patients. The story will have your emotions on a string,from the beginning to the end but carthasis will set them (feelings) free. In this case,death. Tom was better off dead than alive,given the pain he was in.