Taking Turns: Stories from HIV/AIDS Care Unit 371 (Graphic Medicine Book 8)

This morning between 3:30 AM and 5:30 AM I read the book. I marked pages. I lived those amazing experiences as a volunteer on 371, and am grateful I don't have to live them again. MK tells a painful, sad story with grace and wisdom and even humor. Everyone who will take their turn with death--and that means everyone-- will benefit from the stories of the living and loving that unfolded on Unit 371. They changed my life, too. Thank you, thank you, thank you for saying so much in a few powerful drawings.

Beautifully written and extremely moving. The story centers on a nurse's experience on an AIDS ward at the height of the AIDS epidemic. But the story reaches beyond these specific circumstances and explores how caregivers, friends, family, confront the death and dying of loved ones with a terminal diagnosis (which HIV was at that time), the different ways we grieve and how such experiences alter us forever.

Beautiful, efficient writing and drawing tell this surprising inside story of life, yes, LIFE, in an AIDS unit at the height of the epidemic. A rookie nurse experiences the breakdown of barriers between patients and staff that happen when the professionals can't cure, but can offer real connection. Our hero undergoes her own seismic shift in the ensuing tale of love, loss and creativity, which results in this book, and much more.

I couldn't put down this thought provoking, beautiful graphic novel. My mother also worked in the health care industry in Chicago during this time period and lost half her friends. This helps me understand, theoretically, the emotional turmoil she endured. Thank you for speaking your truth in such a way that, through you, we can connect with others and learn about the extraordinary people in 371.

"Taking Turns: Stories from HIV/AIDS Care Unit" is a graphic work by MK Czerwiec that describes her time working as a nurse in a dedicated AIDS unit at Illinois Masonic Hospital in Chicago. It is as much a story about the staff members and the volunteers as much as it is about the patients. The ward was most active during the years that an AIDS diagnosis meant certain death to those who contracted it. As the new protease inhibitors were developed in the mid-1990's, that death sentence was lessened and AIDS became for most a treatable disease. The AIDS ward, so busy in the 1980's and 1990's basically closed-up-shop and the patients went to the cancer wards if they needed treatment.What are graphic novels? According to Wikipedia, "A graphic novel is a book made up of comics content. Although the word 'novel' normally refers to long fictional works, the term 'graphic novel' is applied broadly and includes fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work." I think this definition is important because more books are being published as "graphic" and the difference between a "written" book - particularly a memoir, as Czerwiec's work is considered - and a graphic is the intensity of the ideas being displayed by having both a written and drawn text. What MK Czerwiec writes and illustrates in "Taking Turns" brings the horrors of the illness, as well as the love and hope both given and received to the patient and his care givers."Taking Turns" is not a great work of art, but it is an honest - and loving - look at a hard period of time for many, many people.

This book is written in a wonderful style by a most informed author with a medical background. The graphics are terrific and usher you right through the very interesting story of a nurse working in a most sensitive and challenging unit. I highly recommend this book.

Another great buy for my recent nursing school graduate daughter! She will be working in an Aids/Hospice center. Great book!

This is a stunningly beautiful portrait of what it was like for this deeply caring nurse to work with patients in the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. He portrays his own feelings and the humanity, gifts, and concerns of his patients very well, and recounts discussions about topics ranging from the transcendent to the banal. All of it converges into a deeply felt, deeply meaningful read.

I can't express how much I love this graphic novel! Despite the tragic subject matter it is both innovative and emotive. It masterfully mixes oral history with autobiography, taking a look at one of Chicago's main HIV unit through the eyes of doctors, patients and the staff and volunteers who worked there. Then the author weaves her own heart-felt stories into this historical documentation in a way that allows you to understand it from a subjective and objective perspective. A really innovative way to use the comic medium.

Empecé a leer este cómic casi sin ganas. Cuando el SIDA es ya casi una enfermedad del pasado, me parecía que Taking Turns no aportaría más que recuerdos nostálgicos de su autora, que fue enfermera en una planta de VIH en los momentos más terribles de la enfermedad. El cómic ha sido una sorpresa tremenda. Su historia podría aplicarse a cualquier planta de paliativos y los temas que se tocan, con tanta delicadeza, corresponden a las emociones y sensaciones, miedos, angustias, relaciones....etc de profesionales sanitarios y enfermos graves o terminales. Es una historia que con un dibujo hiper sencillo transmite emoción hasta las lágrimas y humor hasta la carcajada. Un libro sorprendente que sin duda será disfrutado por profesionales sanitarios sin excepción y por cualquiera con gusto por una buna historia y un buen comic.Conflicto de interés: Conozco personalmente a la autora y admiro su trabajo.