Real ED Stories – Book Review

Emergency is an anatomy book. It is a collection of stories penned by Emergency Physicians across Australia, and through them the heart of the Emergency Department is meticulously dissected. The raw stories of individuals, of both patients and their clinicians, are laid wide open, for all to see. Emergency is a book that is by turns painful, occasionally gruesome, many times uplifting, but always, in its honesty, brilliantly authentic. These are short stories, written not by masterful authors, but by the doctors working at the coalface of Australasian ED’s. And in that is its strength. Some of the stories read like cathartic confessionals arising from a troubled experience, others as a manifestation of occupational grief, while others dispense a sort of education for the public – this is what goes on behind the scenes when you find yourself or your loved ones ferried, lights and sirens blaring, into an Australian Emergency Department. There are moments of bravado, joy, compassion, and humour. The dying patient, the human on the brink of life and death, is a common theme throughout the book. This is understandable. Cases of critical illness, cases of teetering mortality and the expectations and love of family members that shapes such presentations, are events that stick fast in the minds of the treating clinicians, and they irrevocably, continually, shape these doctors throughout their entire career. And so these are their stories. They are all true, with just enough alche...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Book Review ACEM Foundation Real ED Stories Source Type: blogs