The Emergency Room: Lives Saved and Lost - Doctors Tell Their Stories

by Dan Sachs MD

From high drama to bitter irony, this one-of-a-kind collection gathers thirty-one extraordinary true stories of doctors on the hospital's front lines. Here is the chance to be on the other side of the swinging doors, to go behind the drawn curtains, to experience the chaos of an emergency room, the clamor of voices, the pulse-quickening excitement, and the hair-trigger decisions that can save a life.
Meet the young woman who comes to the E.R. to have her stomach pumped, claiming to have swallowed an entire bottle of Tylenol, only to have her doctor discover that she is bulimic, fresh off a chocolate binge. Share the agony of the doctor desperately trying to revive a man whose heart has stopped but whose hands keep moving. And see what happens to the mechanic who is rushed into the E.R. with a steel rod sticking out of his neck. Full of pain, hope, and profound relief, these unforgettable stories recount the most intimate and terrifying moments of our existence and offer a rare glimpse into the minds and hearts of the healers who dedicate their lives to saving others.

Genres: Medicine, Nonfiction

272 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1996

Reviews

[Kimberly Diedrich · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was exactly what I was expecting, short stories from the view point of medical professionals. This book is a bit dated though, and could have done without some of the short poems. Overall, it was a good read as summertime is too busy of a season for me to get time to read a whole book in one sitting.

[Maddie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting enough but fairly repetitive.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book took me through the whole gamut of emotions. Some of the stories were horrible and heartbreakingly tragic, others were funny, some were moving, some made me angry at the state of healthcare in our country (although this book was written in the 90s so things may be different now) It wasn't an easy book to read. Children dying, suicides, etc. . I like how they broke the stories up and didn't have just the depressing stories. That made the book a little easier to handle. You get a look into the minds of the doctors who try to save lives in the ER. For one thing, you learn their feelings and realize that even though it may seem like one would have to harden themselves to do the job they do, many of them still feel sadness, grief, and disappointment when the patient dies. Of course, they have to harden themselves to a certain extent, but they still care. And they still have the same insecurities and doubts as another person, especially in the first years of residency when they are still observing and learning. Some of the stories are a little unsettling, because you're feeling, you know, there but for the grace of God go I – anybody can have a heart attack, get hit by a car, etc. and end up in the hospital emergency room with doctors fighting to save their life. I don't usually read books like this and I probably won't read another one for a long time – they tend to get to me and make me upset – but I'm glad I read this one. Hard as it was at times, it was a really fascinating book

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brief collection of stories from emergency room doctors in the mid-1990s, some doctors like Perri Klass, Michael Palmer, and Samuel Shem whose work I have read in the past, others less familiar to me. All of the stories were interesting, most referring to either a particular patient who left an impression or a typical shift in the doctor's hospital. While I suspected some of the stories from the familiar authors would have been ones I'd read before, I didn't remember any of them. All in all, a quick read, perfect to put down after reading a couple stories and pick back up later. Could have been a little longer of course, but the stories were usually 3-4 pages long, so the editor did a good job of making sure each story was different enough to stand on its own, a feat perhaps more difficult if too many more stories would be added.

[Mandy Huot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. Although I've always enjoyed these types of books, I stumbled upon this one by accident (or was it?)

Being a former nursing student, switched to Criminal Justice, reading stories of doctors (and sometimes nurses) still makes me feel part of the field. This book was an excellent dosage of medical story telling, from the plane out weird, to the heart grabbing, emotional stories of loss.

Highly reccomend this book for anyone plainly interested in reading stories from ER doctors, to ER doctors and nurses themselves who want to read experiences and learn from them.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't understand why this book has such low ratings. While I wish I could give it a 3 and 1/2, I found it to be rather good.

[Ago · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good short stories, however they are explicit. A laugh and a tear. Quick read.

[Elizabeth Nesbit-comer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very literary version of emergency room stories. a great read raw brutal and honest

[Wren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dan Sachs, an emergency physician practicing in Chicago, collected 30 essays set in emergency rooms (many of them previously published).

The accounts range from the comic to the lyric, the self-evident medical problem to the mysterious, and the innocents to the culprits. As with most collections, I found some to be better written than others. A few were choppy, and a few were overwrought. But on the whole, I found them insightful and heart wrenching.

Most of the authors shared their struggle to maintain their compassion and their patients dignity in a situation that is constantly trying to rob them of these human traits.