More Than Medicine: A Narrative Reflection on Transplantation

Amid the rush of modern hospitals, patient stories can often fade into the background by the increasing demands of care. One course at IHPME is working to bring those stories back to the forefront.

By: Marielle Boutin

Narrative Medicine is a course that, simply put, teaches students storytelling. Taught by Dr. Allan Detsky, the course asks healthcare professionals to reflect on their lived experiences and translate these into short stories that remind readers of the need to not only communicate but communicate meaningfully in clinical settings.

One student’s story, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, tells the story of her journey with organ transplantation, blending personal experiences with professional insights, and taping into themes of hope, loss, and connection.

Anudari Zorigtbaatar is a General Surgery Resident at U of T, a Vanier Scholar and PhD candidate in IHPME’s Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Research (CEHCR) program. As a PhD student, her research is focused on advancing early detection of liver cancer in Mongolia, her home country, by developing a surveillance strategy that reflect cultural practices and resource availability.

This research is motivated by her personal experience maneuvering through health systems, from the limited care options in her home country of Mongolia to the timely surgical and transplant care in Canada that saved her father’s life.

These reflections provided the backdrop for her impactful narrative essay “The Serendipitous Dance between Life and Death,” which she says is a tribute to all the families who have been touched by transplantation.

“While it was deeply personal, I wanted the story to reflect something larger. That transplantation is not only about one patient or one family, but about the network of people whose lives become intertwined through the gift of organ donation,” says Zorigtbaatar.

The story weaves together themes of connection and shared humanity, tracing her father’s transplant journey alongside her evolving role in medicine.

Given the deep personal attachment to the story, Zorigtbaatar approached writing it with sensitivity to not only capture the emotion but also honour the people whose stories inspired it.

“The Narrative Medicine course helped me see storytelling as a structured craft, not just an emotional outpouring. It taught me to pay attention to details and to shape them into a narrative that others could enter into.”

The writing process also made Zorigtbaatar realize how profoundly her father’s story has influenced her own, from her decision to become a surgeon to how she understands suffering, resilience, and gratitude, saying “I realized that sharing vulnerability openly can be a source of strength, not only for myself, but also for others who may find echoes of their own stories in mine.”

Zorigtbaatar sees storytelling as a powerful tool for humanizing healthcare, which she says is essential for providing equitable care and amplifying voices often left out of critical or even life-saving conversations.

“Every patient carries a narrative of illness, identity, and hope, and engaging with those stories allows us to care more fully for them,” says Zorigtbaatar. “Whether we are eliciting patient histories, advocating for health policy, or teaching the next generation of clinicians. I see storytelling as a way to humanize complex medical issues, to connect across cultures and systems, and to advocate for equity in care.”

Looking ahead, Zorigtbaatar plans to bring narrative practices into her work by giving voice to those who are often unheard, recognizing patients as people and not just cases.

Her essay ends in a moment of profound realization. After years of her father refusing her offer to donate a kidney, Zorigtbaatar is called in to retrieve a donor organ during her transplant rotation. She reflects on the possibility that the one she holds in her hands might be the very one that will save her father’s life.

“Storytelling is at the heart of medicine,” says Zorigtbaatar, reminding readers that behind miracles like transplantation lies deep human connections that form the very foundation of clinical care.