Irv Danesh is a highly respected ER doctor and author, but his journey didn’t start the way you might expect. Just read his book – or maybe, in the not too distant future, catch his story on TV.
Danesh’s book, “The Loco Life of Doctor Taco,” has been picked up by a Hollywood producer to be turned into a sitcom. And now Danesh and his wife, Fanny, are trying to imagine which A-List actor will play him on TV.
“We’re curious to see,” said Danesh last week, with a laugh, as he sat in local coffee shop. “I’m excited to get on the set.”
Danesh’s semi-autobiographical novel chronicles the misadventures of a young man who, when he realizes his grades aren’t good enough to get into a U.S. medical school, decides to get his MD south of the border.
picture: long bridesmaid dresses ukThat echoes Danesh’s real life – he attended med school in Tampico, Mexico. While there, he accumulated a group of expat friends from the states, all-hoping to become doctors. In the book, Danesh, now 59, details epic escapades involving smuggling, prostitution, grave robbing and alligator hunting. He said a lot of the book is true – including a bizarre night he spent in a Mexican prison.
The sitcom deal isn’t Danesh’s first brush with fame. After a chance encounter with a screenwriter at a wedding in Los Angeles, Danesh worked on the USA Network show, Royal Pains, about a concierge doctor on Long Island starring Mark Feuerstein. Danesh was an on-set medical consultant and even wrote a few scenes and appeared as a cardiologist in one episode.
In addition to Feuerstein, he also worked with stars like Henry Winkler.
“It’s a rush being on set and working in the writers’ room,” Danesh said.
While he’s looking forward to being back in show biz, he’s not giving up his day job. Actually, he works nights in the ER at East Boston Community Health Center. Previously, he helped run the ER at Lawrence General for 23 years.
“I love the adrenaline,” Danesh said. “I’m a real ER guy.”
Danesh is writing his second book, based on his years at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center in Brooklyn, where he trained and worked from 1978-1983.
“It was the wild west,” Danesh remembers. “Brookdale was a teaching and living experience, essentially run by the doctors-in-training. The average workweek was 120 hours plus. The surgical uniform was at least a scrub top, jeans and dirty white coat, at least on rounds.
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