From a gripping courtroom memoir to a sweeping immigrant story to a literary novel, three CMS-member physicians have published books in the past year – each offering a different window into resilience, memory, and what it means to heal.

Running with Lions
Pius Kamau, MD

A boy in colonial Kenya learns to face danger early – from the political forces bearing down on his community to a literal encounter with a leopard in the forest. Coming of age amid the upheaval of the Mau Mau Rebellion, where illness and loss are constant companions, he clings to one conviction: education is his way forward. That belief carries him through an attempted escape on foot, arrest, a hard-won scholarship, and eventually medical training abroad – before he returns home to practice medicine in a newly independent Kenya still wrestling with old inequities. Running with Lions is a memoir of grit, ambition, and the long road from a struggling village to the operating room.

Dr. Kamau is a retired thoracic surgeon, known for both his surgical career and his writing on identity and immigration.

About Not Losing: A High-Stakes Trial. Life’s Purpose Found.
James Ogsbury, MD

When a hospitalized patient suffers a devastating brain injury from a procedure performed by others that the neurosurgeon did not wish to be done, the resulting malpractice trial becomes far more than a legal proceeding – it becomes a crucible that reshapes everyone involved. Written as events unfolded, this memoir pulls readers into the courtroom’s tension and uncertainty, then follows an unexpected settlement that closes one chapter while opening another. At its heart, About Not Losing is less about winning or losing a case and more about the surprising growth, self-discovery, and lasting connections forged among the three people at the center of the storm.

Dr. Ogsbury is a retired neurosurgeon whose memoir grew out of his own experience navigating a high-profile malpractice trial.

Stage of Fools
Sean Pauzauskie, MD

A powerful San Francisco businessman lies silent in an ICU bed, his body still but his mind adrift through memory, regret, and long-hidden truths – including a painful rift with his daughters. An experimental brain-stimulation therapy offers a fragile chance at waking, while a younger man navigating his own uncertain path begins to mirror the patient’s unfinished story. Blending past and present, consciousness and dream, this literary novel echoes the emotional terrain of King Lear to ask timeless questions about power, forgiveness, and what it truly means to heal.

Dr. Pauzauskie is a neurologist whose debut fictional novel draws on his clinical experience with neurological illness and recovery.

Join us in Vail

Meet all three authors in person at the CMS Annual Meeting, Friday, Sept. 18, in Vail. Bring your questions about writing, publishing and drawing inspiration from a medical career.