For readers of Henry Marsh's Do No Harm, Paul A. Ruggieri's Confessions of a Surgeon,and Atul Gawande's Better, a pioneering surgeon shares memories from a life in one of surgery’s most demanding fieldsThe 1980s marked a revolution in the field of organ transplants, and Bud Shaw, M.D., who studied under Tom Starzl in Pittsburgh, was on the front lines. Now retired from active practice, Dr. Shaw relays gripping moments of anguish and elati...

John Burley's The Absence of Mercy is a harrowing tale of suspense involving a brutal murder and dark secrets that lie beneath the surface of a placid, tight-knit Midwestern town.When a brutally murdered teenager is discovered in the woods surrounding a small Ohio town, Dr. Ben Stevenson—the town's medical examiner—must decide if he's willing to put his family's life in danger to uncover the truth. Finding himself pulled deeper into an investigation with devastating conseq...

The team of nurses that Tilda Shalof found herself working with in the intensive care unit (ICU) of a big-city hospital was known as “Laura’s Line.” They were a bit wild: smart, funny, disrespectful of authority, but also caring and incredibly committed to their jobs. Laura set the tone with her quick remarks. Frances, from Newfoundland, was famous for her improvised recipes. Justine, the union rep, wore t-shirts emblazoned with defiant slogans, like “Nurses Care But It’s Not in the Budget...

This book is a collection of my all-time favorite stories from working with patients as a medical professional over the past seventeen years. I have witnessed and been a part of some amazing experiences ranging from hilarious to shocking to just plain disgusting. I've told these stories many times at family gatherings, parties, and in conversations with friends. After much encouragement, I took the time to write them down before they became distant memories. Each chapter of this book is de...

Twenty-five years in the ER could become a resume for despair, but for Dr. Robert D. Lesslie it's a foundation for inspiring tales of angels who are friends, nurses, doctors, patients, strangers, or those unseen but clearly present "others"in the midst of trial."The ER is a difficult and challenging place to be. Yet the same pressures and stresses that make this place so challenging also provide an opportunity to experience some of life's greatest wonders and mysteries."Dr. Lesslie illumin...

As the healthcare debate rages on with the growth of the HMO industry, nurses quietly continue to provide the day-to-day grit and deeply-felt passion that hold the healing profession together. Within these remarkable women and men are poignant, outrageous stories drawn from the edge of life. But fear of career backlash and reprisals have made them reluctant to talk to outsiders about their experience. Now Echo Heron, New York Times bestselling author of Intensive Care, draws truths far str...

When I mention that I work in an emergency room, people usually say,Are you a nurse?Wow. That must be really hard.What's it like?This is what it's like to be an emergency doctor.That teenager puking up two liters of vodka and his stomach lining at triage? Yup. Blood pouring out of a terrified pregnant woman? Call me. And, of course, the patient who no longer has a nosebleed screaming at me across the depart...

With unflinching honesty, an ER doctor tells readers what it's really like to be a caring physician with one of the most demanding, exhilarating, frustrating, and rewarding jobs in the world.An emergency medicine physician for nearly a decade, Dr. Pamela Grim has delivered babies, treated heart attacks, saved car accident victims, comforted the dying, and consoled the living who were left behind. She has worked all over the world, caring for victims of gang...

TRUE LIFE-AND-DEATH DRAMAIn taut, thrilling prose, Peter Canning has written a book that captures the rarely seen real world of emergency medicine. A seasoned paramedic who fights under enormous pressure to save lives, Canning trains new paramedics for the rigors of a nonstop, action-packed battle. From a four-month-old baby who has stopped breathing to a sixty-seven-year-old woman with a strange abdominal mass that threatens to explode--these are gripping true stories from the "ER...

"Dramatic, moving, and utterly fascinating." —New York Times Book ReviewWith poignant insight and humor, When the Air Hits Your Brain chronicles one man’s evolution from naïve and ambitious young intern to world-class neurosurgeon. In electrifying detail, Frank Vertosick Jr. describes some of the greatest challenges of his career, including a six-week-old infant with a tumor in her brain, a young man struck down in his prime by paraplegia, and a minister with a .2...

You’ve heard about them. Extraordinary…unexplainable…seemingly miraculous true stories that couldn’t have happened—but did. Real-life stories of life changes, answered prayers, inner and outer healing where they appeared impossible.Again and again, bestselling author Dr. Robert Lesslie has encountered such Miracles in the ER during his decades of experience in emergency medicine. In these vignettes—all true stories—Dr. Lesslie chronicles miracles of…physical ...

A cardiac technician takes you to the front lines of emergency medicine—from tragic car accidents to gunshot wounds—in this "fast-moving" memoir ( Booklist).This book takes the reader to the front lines of medicine, from a serious automobile accident on a dark country road to a woman in cardiac arrest to a young man with near‑fatal gunshot wounds. For these patients and countless others, treatment cannot wait until they are wheeled into a distant emergency ...