Tuesday, November 18, 2025
10 am | Parlor
Trauma and Tenacity in Vietnam: A Surgeon’s Story
by Mary Jane Ingui, PhD – 2017
Dr. Ingui is the mother of FPC’s organist Tom Ingui and will join us for the discussion. Her book captures the defining period in the medical life of Capt. Sheldon Kushner, MD, while stationed in Vinh Long, Vietnam, from 1968-69. Through letters, reel-to-reel tape recordings, slides and the personal interviews that recounted his experience, the story of a young surgeon is revealed. When we think of Vietnam and medicine, there is a natural tendency to think of the M*A*S*H image of treating American soldiers wounded in combat. However, unlike the TV doctors who helped our servicemen, Sheldon used his medical skills to care for wounded Vietnamese civilians. This role represents a new part of the story that is Vietnam.
The PageTurners Book Club meets the third Tuesday of each month at 10 am in the church parlor.