Dr Bundi Karau during the Escort-In-Chief book launch. /HANDOUT
In Escort-In-Chief, physician and neurologist Dr Bundi Karau invites readers into the often unseen world of medicine, not through cold clinical facts, but through the lived experience of walking with patients at their most vulnerable moments.
The book is a reflection of the daily struggles faced by doctors, revealing the doubts, moral dilemmas, and quiet decisions that define life inside hospital wards.
It presents medicine as it truly is: an imperfect science grappling with the extraordinary complexity of the human body and the unpredictable nature of disease.
Dr Karau challenges the common assumption that medicine always has clear answers. Instead, he shows how the very science designed to save lives is limited by what we do not yet understand, from the intricacies of human anatomy and physiology to the countless ways illness alters the body.
The book equips readers with practical insight whether preparing for a medical encounter, navigating pandemics, or understanding suffering and loss. At its core, however, the book is a meditation on gratitude and chance.
Through deeply personal stories, Dr Karau underscores the randomness with which disease strikes. He confronts the tendency to blame victims, reminding readers that many illnesses arise from genetic mutations and predispositions that science is still struggling to explain. As he notes, out of ten smokers, only one may develop lung cancer, and not necessarily the heaviest smoker.
This unpredictability, the author argues, should teach us to live fully in the present and appreciate every waking day. Dr Bundi Karau’s authority is rooted in both academic excellence and lived experience.
He was the top candidate in the 2002 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations and went on to earn a Bachelor of Science in Human Anatomy, a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, a Master of Medicine in Internal Medicine, and a PhD in Human Anatomy (Neurosciences)—all from the University of Nairobi.
He later undertook a subspecialist fellowship in Neurology at St John’s Medical College in Bangalore, India.
In addition to Escort-In-Chief, Dr Karau is the author of The Journey to Academic Success and Beyond, a motivational text that continues to guide high-school and college students.
He currently serves as a Senior Lecturer in Internal Medicine at the Kenya Methodist University, an Honorary Consultant Physician at Meru Teaching and Referral Hospital, and Chief Physician and Neurologist at Oregon Health Services.
His research work, particularly in clinical neurosciences, has been widely published. Away from the clinic and lecture halls, Dr Karau journals his travels on social media and blogs, hoping to inspire others through reflection and lived experience.
In Escort-In-Chief, he chronicles a career shaped in Kenyan hospitals and clinics confronting life-threatening emergencies, fragile hope, and the profound privilege of escorting patients through some of the most defining moments of their lives.
Comments 0
Sign in to join the conversation
Sign In Create AccountNo comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!