The Final Diagnosis

Few writers have had the opportunity to see two of their novels become such record-shattering best sellers as Airport and Hotel. But then few novelists possess Arthur Hailey's remarkable talents. Combining a meticulous eye for detail with a profound sense of human drama, he cuts through the impersonal facade of our great institutions to reveal the all-too-personal conflicts below. THE FINAL DIAGNOSIS was the first of Hailey's exciting novels. A story of the life and death struggles in a large hospital, it focuses on Joe Pearson, the chief pathologist who must make the final diagnosis on every patient-and eventually on himself. Although it has not yet received the same popular acclaim as its sequels, this novel lacks none of Hailey's immense narrative powers. No-admirer of his works will want to miss it. A motion picture version of this novel was entitled The Young Doctors.