Courage in a White Coat tells the extraordinary true story of Dr. Dorothy Joy Kinney Chambers, a woman whose determination, compassion, and faith carried her through both professional obstacles and unimaginable wartime hardship. Beginning in 1928, at a time when women in medicine were often dismissed or denied opportunities, Dorothy defied the odds by graduating second in her medical class—only to be refused a position in obstetrics because of her gender. Undeterred, she accepted a post in Gauhati, India, where she was met not by modern facilities but by an open-air pavilion without electricity or running water.
In those early years, she performed surgeries under the glow of a Coleman lantern and worked tirelessly to transform the primitive clinic into a fully functioning hospital. Her dedication earned the love and trust of the Assamese people. After marrying and having two children, Dorothy and her husband Fred relocated to the Philippines in 1939, where their peaceful life was shattered by World War II.
Through starvation, imprisonment, and the constant threat of death, Dorothy’s resilience never faltered. Drawing from letters written during the war, the book vividly recounts their survival in the Santo Tomas prison camp—liberated by General MacArthur just one day before mass execution.