On Call In The Arctic

The extraordinary memoir of a young doctor and his wife as she struggles to make a home and he to practice medicine in the most archaic conditions imaginable at the top of the world.

Take the crazy antics and fish-out-of-water stories of Northern Exposure, combine them with the hilarious tales of Doc Martin and rough-and-rugged setting of The Discovery Channel’s Alaskan Bush People and you get the true-life adventure of Dr. Thomas J. Sims as told in his amazing best-selling memoir “On Call in the Arctic.”

Imagine a young doctor, trained in the latest medical knowledge and modern equipment, suddenly being transported to one of the world’s most isolated and unforgiving environments—the Alaskan bush – and then being expected to perform feats of medicine and surgery far beyond his level of training or experience. Well . . .  that happens to young Dr. Tom Sims when, on the brink of becoming a pediatric surgeon, he is pulled away from his medical training and is drafted into the Army to serve as a M.A.S.H. surgeon in Vietnam but ultimately is sent to Alaska.

In the Arctic, Sims travels over death-defying terrain by dogsled, snowmobile, and bush plane to reach Arctic villagers in need of help. He performs surgery without real anesthesia, often under flashlight illumination, delivers babies by Coleman lantern, and even delivers his own son because he is the only doctor in town. Before Arctic winter sets in he is called upon to subdue a murderous psychotic hermit sitting atop a hill shooting up locals in the Eskimo village of White Mountain and when winter eventually does arrive, he fights depression from lack of sunlight and the death of two close friends.

As if life in the Arctic isn’t difficult enough, although he works tirelessly for all residents of Nome, certain elements of the community consider him an “outsider” and he must overcome racism and cultural prejudices of those in power who want nothing more than to see him packing. Their reason is simple: he represents government medicine, and they want no part of that.

“On Call in the Arctic” is a fast-paced read of adventure and hope, filled with adrenaline highs and heartrending lows. It is the inspirational true story of an idealistic young man who follows his instincts and, based on those instincts, learns to overcome prejudice and unsurmountable odds to achieve success beyond what he ever believed possible.