Burrill Bernard Crohn with inflammatory bowel disease, including Crohn's disease. He was elected president of the American Gastroenterological Association in 1932. He received numerous awards and professional honors, wrote extensively for doctors and the general public, and was asked to consult on high-profile patients from all over the US and abroad, including President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956. During his career, Crohn wrote three books, "Affections of the Stomach" (1927), "Understand Your Ulcer" (1943), and "Regional Ileitis" (1947, second edition 1958). He also wrote more than 100 articles for professional journals. When asked why he went into medicine, Crohn said he wanted to
The Gifts of the Body the patients and the caregiver. The book contains ten short stories, the titles of each being associated with "gifts" which are various functions of the body, both physical and emotional: sweat, wholeness, tears, skin, hunger, mobility, death, speech, sight, hope, and mourning. The caregiver experiences each "gift", as he/she deals with patients who have AIDS, showing the different shared relationships in each case. Each patient is a distinct case, differing in terms of age, financial situation, attitude toward the illness etc., showing the reader that this disease affects all types of people. The book is written in the "no-frills style"