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Life Support

by Tess Gerritsen (Goodreads Author)

3.92 of 5 stars 3.92 · rating details · 5,141 ratings · 204 reviews

Control was the word Dr Toby Harper lived by. She strove to keep her life in order, her ER in order.

But no one could have been prepared for the man she admits one quiet night to the Springer Hospital. Delirious and in critical condition, he barely responds to treatment. And then he disappears without trace.

The subsequent search leads Toby to a second patient with the same...more

Paperback, 474 pages

Published April 24th 2006 by Bantam (first published 1997)

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Dec 02, 2012 ☪ℒiℱ ☚☠☛ rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Tess'in konu seçimine bayılıyorum... Yaşlılar(bitiş-ölüm) ve yeni doğmuş bebekler(doğum-başlangıç) arasında güzel bir bağ kurmuş. İlginç fikirlerini gerçekleştirmeye çalışan doktorlar ve çirkin deneylerini okurken ürpermemek elde değil...

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May 06, 2013 Patricia Scholes rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Life Support by Tess Garritsen

Toby Harper is an ER physician. She deals with trauma daily. And then the police bring in an elderly man found wandering around naked.

He says his name is Harry, but he remembers little else. Toby calls the man’s son to let him know his father has been found and would he please take his father home, because the old man can’t seem to remember where he lives.

But by the time the son gets there, his father is gone.

After a second similar incident, Dr. Harper decided to i...more

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Aug 19, 2012 Angie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was impressed by the level of medical detail in this book, then it turns out the author is a former internist. EXCELLENT. I am not a doctor, but I do work in the health care field, and it's annoying when even I can pick out details that are clearly wrong. Authors who are not familiar with a certain field should make a huge effort to get those details right, in my opinion, and this author has enough knowledge to really nail the details down.

However, there were a few things that bothered. For on...more I was impressed by the level of medical detail in this book, then it turns out the author is a former internist. EXCELLENT. I am not a doctor, but I do work in the health care field, and it's annoying when even I can pick out details that are clearly wrong. Authors who are not familiar with a certain field should make a huge effort to get those details right, in my opinion, and this author has enough knowledge to really nail the details down.

However, there were a few things that bothered. For one, HIPAA in the U.S. is a pretty tight ship- To protect patient privacy is its #1 priority, and those who violate HIPAA can end up banned from any field that deals with it in the future. So the main character is essentially asking other characters to put their medical licenses on the line, circumventing HIPAA, and that's a bizarre thing for even a stressed-out ER doctor to do. In fact, my main beef with this book is the main character herself. I don't know the stress an ER doctor is under, obviously, but I do know the stress of working the graveyard shift long-term, and also that an ER with only one doctor for coverage is pretty small. I think Dr. Harper needed more of a build-up to be that out of whack, to be breaking into things and violating privacy ethics left and right. Also, what hospital doesn't have video cameras these days? Just for security reasons? Sure, there needs to be some stress and conflict to drive the plot and the characters, but oh man, it's so frustrating to think that one of those stressors could easily have been dealt with simply by looking at the security tape footage.

Also, perhaps doctors don't have to go through the same levels that us minions do, to get at protected information, but at the same time there's something bizarre about a doctor ready and willing to walk in and simply demand records she has no rights or access to, and to recruit another doctor who basically shrugs and says "okay" after only a token resistance. In this day of interconnected medical records, as well, most doctors have some access to other clinic's electronic medical record (EMR) systems. I wasn't sure if perhaps the author had retired as a doctor before some of these networks were put in place, but most systems are rushing headlong into EMR systems and a greater level of cooperation and access within those systems for better, more prompt patient care.

So, I dunno, great story but some of those details really irked me.(less)

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Jun 04, 2012 Heather rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Dr. Toby Harper works the night shift at Springer Hospital ER located outside of Boston. Toby also cares for her elderly mother Ellen who is battling alzheimer’s. The exciting story begins when an elderly man who is extremely disoriented is admitted in the ER. This man somehow escapes from the town and goes missing. Toby, feeling responsible for his disappearance, becomes obsessed with finding the diagnosis of this Brant Hill nursing home patient. Dr. Wallenberg who is the chief doctor at Brant...more

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Jan 26, 2012 Büşra Bal rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Tess benim olmazsa olmaz yazarlarımdan,hani ne yazsa okurum,konuya bile bakmam dediklerimden.Bu kitabı gene güzeldi,gene birkaç saatte bitti.Belki çabuk bittiğindendir bilmiyorum ama şuan pek etkili gelmedi bana.Zaten Tess'in seri kitaplarını daha çok seviyorum sanırım,ordaki karakterlere alıştığımdan belki,yeni karakterlerine pek ısınamıyorum.

Tess güzel bir konu seçmiş,güzel de işlemiş.Gene birkaç hikaye üzerinden gitmiş ki bu kadının en sevdiğim yönlerinden biri bu, Siyahi bir doktorun ırkçı i...more

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Jun 26, 2011 Kathleen Hagen added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011-audio-books, 2011-mysteries

Life Support, by Tess Gerritsen, b-plus, narrated by George Guidall, produced by Simon and Schuster Audio, downloaded from audible.com.

Audible.com has started the republishing of early mysteries by famous authors. This book is one of the early ones written by Gerritsen before she started her famous series. These books are usually still medical thrillers and feature a woman physician. In this book, Toby Harper is emergency room doctor on the night shift. A series of odd events and patients with o...more

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Nov 20, 2010 Jane rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people who love medical thrillers

I always appreciate medical thrillers written by real MD's. The medical references and scenarios are accurate. Toby Harper is an overworked MD. Her personal life includes a solitary existence with the exception of her mother with Alzheimers living in her home. Toby's world begins to unravel when she treats an elderly man admitted with strange symptoms. The patient mysteriously disappears while under Toby's care and she feels her life beginning to spiral out of her control as she fights her guilt...more

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Dec 14, 2009 BarkLessWagMore rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, mystery

This abridged recording begins when an underage prostitute is delivered to her client. She’s immediately put off by the sleazy location but plays along entering a white walled room filled only with a bright light and what appears to be a doctor’s examination table. She hops up on the table as instructed but is soon sucking in noxious fumes and knocked unconscious . . .

Next we meet Dr. Toby Harper who works the graveyard shift in the emergency room. One night an old man appears in the ER with no...more

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Oct 31, 2011 Marianne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Life Support is the 10th stand-alone novel by Tess Gerritsen. Springer Hospital’s night-shift ER doctor, Toby Harper, finds her job is on the line when she literally loses a patient. The elderly man presents with confusion and apparent seizures, but while the ER staff are dealing with another emergency, the patient disappears. When another patient with identical symptoms, from the same exclusive residential community, with the same doctor, dies in the hospital, Toby wants to investigate further,...more

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Jun 15, 2011 Danni rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Gerritsen tells a captivating and thrilling story about an ER doctor caught in the middle of an experiment gone wrong in her novel Life Support. Toby Harper's life revolves around her late night ER shifts and looking after her mother after she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. While her life may not be going exactly to plan, she is on a clear path...until a patient is brought naked into her ER, confused and having isolated tremors...a patient that was completely lucid only a few weeks before. Unab...more

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Jun 07, 2009 Donna rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: medical thriller readers

Shelves: 2009

This was a fast paced medical thriller which I enjoyed.
When I first started reading it I wasn't sure because it seemed as if the author was just showing off their knowledge of medical procedures, but this doesn't carry on and the thriller aspect kicks in.
Basically there are very rich, elderly residents of a retirement home volunteering for experiments to prolong their lives, and at first this seems to be working, until they start dying of strange symptoms. It turns out that the doctors giving t...more

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Oct 23, 2011 Yas rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: american-or-canadian, crime-fiction, authors-i-cherish, just-good, reviewed, library-not-owned, suspense-mystery-or-thriller

I've read 3 books so far by Gerritsen. Her other stand-alone 'Harvest' and the first of her Rizzoli & Isles series 'The surgeon' and can honestly say this book is not on par with them at all in terms of enjoyability/ likeable characters/ plot.

I hasten to add, it is a good book and deserving of 3 stars but just that. A 'good' book only. Nothing as gripping or fabulous as the other 2 I have read which I rated much higher (both 5 stars).

The plot has rather a far fetch sci- fi ish element which...more

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Aug 01, 2012 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ausgeliehen-stabi-ludwigsburg, read-in-2012

In diesem Thriller geht es um die junge Ärztin Toby Harper. In deren Nachtschicht wird ein Patient in die Notaufnahme eingeliefert, ein älterer Mann, den die Polizei nackt und verwirrt vor sich hinbrabbelnd im Park gefunden hatte und nun ins Krankenhaus gebracht hat.
Toby kümmert sich um den alten Mann, bekommt dann allerdings noch einen Notfall, um den sie sich kümmern muss. Als sie später an diesem frühen Morgen nach ihrem seltsamen Patienten sehen will, ist er verschwunden.

Hinzu kommt noch, da...more In diesem Thriller geht es um die junge Ärztin Toby Harper. In deren Nachtschicht wird ein Patient in die Notaufnahme eingeliefert, ein älterer Mann, den die Polizei nackt und verwirrt vor sich hinbrabbelnd im Park gefunden hatte und nun ins Krankenhaus gebracht hat.
Toby kümmert sich um den alten Mann, bekommt dann allerdings noch einen Notfall, um den sie sich kümmern muss. Als sie später an diesem frühen Morgen nach ihrem seltsamen Patienten sehen will, ist er verschwunden.

Hinzu kommt noch, dass der Sohn des alten Mannes auftaucht und der festen Überzeugung ist, dass ein Vater nicht dement ist und vor einer Woche noch völlig normal mit ihm gesprochen habe. Nach dem Verschwinden des Mannes will nicht nur dessen Sohn, sondern auch die Krankenhausleitung Toby, die für ihren Patienten verantwortlich war, zur Rechenschaft ziehen.

Der alte Mann ist wie vom Erdboden verschwunden und schließlich wird ein weiterer älterer Mann, dessen Körper aber noch viel jünger wirkt, als er eigentlich ist, in verwirrtem Zustand und mit Zuckungen im rechten Arm ins Krankenhaus eingeliefert, wo er eine Woche später stirbt. Nicht nur Toby, sondern auch der Pathologe Daniel Dvorak wird hellhörig, als herauskommt, dass beide Patienten in der Seniorenresidenz Brant Hill wohnten. Kann es sein, dass den Bewohnern, die es wünschen, Hormone verabreicht werden, eine sogenannte Verjüngungskur?

Doch all diese Bewohner werden früher oder später in verwirrtem Zustand ins Krankenhaus eingeliefert und sterben wenig später, da sie an einer seltenen, tödlichen Krankheit leiden. Das kann kein Zufall sein, aber irgendjemand versucht mit aller Macht zu verhindern, dass Toby und Dvorak hinter die wahren Gründe der seltsamen Todesfälle in Brant Hill kommen.

Wieder ein sehr, sehr spannender Medizin-Thriller aus der Feder von Tess Gerritsen. Auch wenn dies kein Thriller der Rizzoli/Isles-Reihe war, habe ich das Buch gern gelesen. Es war wirklich spannend und ich konnte es zeitweise kaum aus der Hand legen. Ich finde es auch immer wieder schön, dass Tess Gerritsen nicht nur ihre Hauptpersonen zu Wort kommen lässt und näher beschreibt, sondern dass man auch sehr viel vom „Innenleben“ einiger Nebenpersonen mitbekommt. Empfehlenswert!
(less)

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Aug 22, 2011 Michelle♥ rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: library, medical-thriller

This was horrible for me.

I understand that this was a stand alone and was quite different from the Rizzoli & Isles series, but this was by far the worst I've read by her.

If I would have read this first and not the other series, I would have never picked any of her books up!

I hated the plot, the story itself, the characters were flat and dull, the ending was horrible, and just everything altogether for me was total yuck!

Prostitutes, non human babies/tumors thingies, ER night shift, everyone...more

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Jan 28, 2012 Den rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, thriller-mystery

This is a brilliant book that kept me up reading until late at night - so wish I hadn't got work the next day or I would have read through the night.
A patient comes into Dr Toby Harper's emergency room, then disappears as she is busy elsewhere. When another patient comes in displaying similar symptoms she begins to dig around and finds they comes from the same nursing complex. She is a busy woman as well as trying to work out the connection between these two old men she has to care for her mothe...more

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Aug 08, 2008 Ellen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Everyone

This book dealt with medical research suspense -- specifically hormone/gene therapy. Tess is an interesting author, and I can only imagine how much research goes into each novel she writes.

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Jul 12, 2011 Thom Swennes rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I just finished Life Support and Tess Gerritsen has impressed me again with her knowledge of yet another aspect of medicine; geriatrics. She is a master at making the elevated world of medicine and doctors understandable to the masses. Her ability to create new characters and bring them to life is equaled with few and bettered by none. If I could voice one criticism it would be that she leaves her characters with their lives unresolved (no happily-ever-after endings) and leave it to the reader’s...more

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May 10, 2011 Aunty Janet rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

'Life Support' is a fast moving medical thriller that stars Dr Toby Harper, a (female) doctor working in a small community hospital. When one of Dr Harper's patients vanishes mysteriously from the hospital and another dies of an unusual viral disease, she sets out to try and find out exactly what is going on. However, someone doesn't want Toby to find out the truth, and will do anything in their power to stop her.
The book is gripping and a real page turner. It is also horribly gruesome! I found...more

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Sep 06, 2009 Bob rated it 4 of 5 stars

A medical thriller with night shift ER Dr. Toby Harper facing caring for her mother with Altzheimers and growing discontent at work. There is another DR. who is trying to discredit her , a patient disappears from the ER while she is drawn to an more dire trauma and her growing suspicions that all is not right with a DR and his patients from a care facility for the super rich. Her investigations create more problems for her and threaten her job. I will leave the rest up to you to read about in th...more

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Jul 10, 2012 Leslie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The book starts out well, with good character development and several plot lines. And if you can get past the disturbing images the author creates, you are in for a nail-biting ending. But the mental image is quite disturbing - borderline sci-fi, but disgusting. Also, the medical terminology and jargon get a bit tiresome. Finally, the way the author deals with a family member's death is not authentic.

My biggest complaint with this author is that I don't like her protagonists. They generally star...more

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Jul 30, 2011 Scott added it · review of another edition

This book ended up as a decent read, although it was far from my favorite Gerritsen book. It started out very slow, and for a while I just couldn't figure out where it was going. The ending brought everything together even though the climax was a bit lackluster. All in all, I did like the book and I thought the characters were well flushed out. A good medical thriller with a plot that left me wondering if it could indeed actually happen. Not my favorite from Gerritsen, but certainly worth the re...more

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May 26, 2011 Anne rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-couldn-t-finish

Actually, I didn't read it. I started it, but I couldn't finish it. I'm going to have to write to the Goodreads people and ask them to make a new shelf for books like this one. I tried. I did. Usually, I like Tess Gerritsen books. But this one had too many things in it that I couldn't stand: graphic descriptions (too graphic) of things such as surgeries, a rape, and human genitalia; weird/unnatural science; I could go on. But I won't. The long and short of it is that I won't try this book again...more

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Oct 18, 2011 Seif Salama rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wouldn't it be wonderful if the heroine from Harvest could meet the star of Life Support for a cup of coffee. Picture them together, the amazed looks on their faces as they realize how much they have in common! Both are talented female hospital based physicians who find out that an evil cabal of doctors is wreaking havoc on the health of patients. And, in both cases our protagonists digging into their affairs do not amuse the dastardly doctors.
Toby and her new found friend discover that a few mi...more

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Feb 27, 2012 Everybookhasasoul rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2011

Tess Gerritsen is one of my favourite authors within this genre. I seem to go through every emotion when I am reading one of her novels. I have had to stop books before as I was in the house myself and the house started to creak.

I love how she brings her medical knowledge to her books and I find this makes them unique and stand out in a genre where a lot of books are published. The medical references and scenes within the novel as brought to life through this medical knowledge and I think this a...more

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Aug 26, 2009 Allison rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Gerritsen's second book, a stand alone story. A mystery with the right amount of suspense. It's probably not intended in the book, but it reaffirms my desire to stay way the heck away from hospitals or any medical procedure that is not truly life or death. And the ending was a little too heroine-gets-rescued-just-in-the-nick-of-time not real life but still satisfying. I also like how Gerritsen is so obviously comfortable with medical language (which she should be as she's an MD) and uses it well...more

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Jun 26, 2012 Pr Latta rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: families, medical, suspense, strong-women, red-flag

Medical suspense entertainment. One of Gerritsen's older (1997), stand alone novels, this hasn't really stood the test of time. While her solid medical background is evident, a lot has happened in fifteen years and it made me question the validity of the assumptions too often to enjoy. Added to the not-very-likable Dr. Toby Harper, caricature bad guys, and some vividly gruesome scenes, I'm amazed I finished the book. But strangely, I did eventually get sucked in and was satisfied with the conclu...more

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Jan 21, 2009 Stacy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-we-own

I picked up this book at a library sale as I had read one or two by the author before and enjoyed them. They are a good change of pace from the light, Christian or women's fiction I normally read.

I am going to count this book towards one of my reading challenges - the What's in a Name 2 challenge, I am going to use this book for the "Medical Condition" entry.

This book follows Dr. Toby Harper, a suburban Boston ER doctor. She gets an ER visit from an elderly man who is disoriented and confused. H...more

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Mar 09, 2009 LJ rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary_post_1945, boston, female_author, medical_thriller, mystery, suspense

LIFE SUPPORT (Med. Thriller-Toby Harper-Boston-cont) - Ex
Gerritsen, Tess - Standalone

From Fantastic Fiction: When an elderly patient with a critical, viral infection of the brain mysteriously vanishes from the emergency room, ER resident Toby Harper finds her job and home life coming under intense scrutiny, while her research for the missing patient uncovers a frightening epidemic and nightmarish conspiracy.

1997 Honorable Mention- Great suspense, medically creepy.

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Jan 05, 2013 Peggy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Dr. Toby Harper is caring for her mother who has Alzheimer's and working in an ER--totally overstressed. She lost a patient--literally, in that he disappeared. Then she has another patient with the same symptoms. The story also deals with grossly deformed "babies" and a foe--Dr. Wallenberg from the wealthy Brant Hlll, where more patients with similar symptoms keep cropping up. The book was enjoyable, if slightly predictable.

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Aug 30, 2012 Hailey Gagnon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Okay I'd just like to say that it really bothers me when people give this low ratings because they didn't understand all the "medical jargon." Obviously there are going to be medical terms in the book, it's a medical thriller. Anyway.
This book was amazing, with well-written characters and a breathtaking plot line that left me wondering to the very last pages. I had never read any of her books before, but now I plan to. Gerritsen is clearly a wonderful story-teller.

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About Tess Gerritsen

Internationally bestselling author Tess Gerritsen took an unusual route to a writing career. A graduate of Stanford University, Tess went on to medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, where she was awarded her M.D.

While on maternity leave from her work as a physician, she began to write fiction. In 1987, her first novel was published. Call After Midnight, a romantic thriller...more

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