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Chapters One through Four

• During the summer of 1985, a young man driving from New York to Johnson City, Tennessee gets sick.

• He is taken to the Johnson City Medical Center where Claire Bellamy, a nurse, realizes he is seriously ill and calls for help.

• A pulmonary doctor, Ray, believes that the young man has AIDS and the staff is terrified of being exposed to the disease.

• After the young man dies, discussion centers around what to do with the ventilator, but personnel believe this is an isolated incident for a rural city like Johnson City since AIDS is a big city problem.

• Abraham Verghese discusses how he came to Johnson City.

• Verghese's parents are from India, and they met while teaching physics in Ethiopia.

• Abraham studied in Ethiopia, India, and America before completing his degree in the United States.

• While in India, Abraham met and married Rajani Chacko...

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