Customer Reviews

Emergency!: True Stories From The Nation's ERs

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This little orange book has a lot to recommend it: The stories are powerful, sometimes for the hope they give, sometimes for the horror they reveal, sometimes for both. The writing is clear and easy to read, and goes by quickly. Perhaps most impressively, the pace and rhythm are such that in spite of the peaks of emotion achieved, burnout is avoided, with humor and hope slipping in to defuse the horror just when as it becomes too great to contain, and horror making its appearance just when we are so uplifted that we should burst. These are the best of the stories collected from over 15,000 ER staff members, so if you want to know the extremes of life at your local Emergency Room, don't bother with TV's ER, read this book instead.

EMERGENCY! is nonfiction that reads like a page-turner novel. This book contains over 100 vignettes written by emergency room doctors and nurses all over the country. Some are dark and sad, some are hopeful and uplifting, most are gruesome, and all are so compelling that you can't help but go on to the next. I don't think I have a particular penchant for morbidity, but I read this book in one afternoon.

There are stories of GOMERs (Get Out of My Emergency Room), elderly people barely hanging on to life who must be resusitated; patients with DSB (Drug-Seeking Behavior), who come in with an imagined complaint in hopes of getting narcotics; SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) babies; mothers having babies in cars; severed body parts; Code Blues; people with, er, complaints of a personal nature.

We meet a young man who needs a blood transfusion thanks to a stab wound, but won't get one because he carries a card in his wallet that states he's a Jehovah's Witness. Gastroenterologists try out their new toy; interns try to intubate patients; lab techs faint in patients' laps; everyone works long hours.

EMERGENCY! brings us straight into the ER, where we know the stress of trying to keep patients alive, and the anguish of family, friends, and staff left behind when it can't be done. You will cry, you will laugh, you will wonder why you are reading this book--but once you've started it, read it you will.

Kimberly Borrowdale, Under the Covers Book Reviews

I love a book that brings home the drama of daily life in a way that makes you laugh and makes you cry. This book of short stories from the nations's emergency rooms covers everything from everyday mishaps to monumental tragedies; from the guy next door, to human monsters. Perhaps before the advent of the TV show, it may have seemed a bit graphic. But now that we all know how to perform our own kidney transplants, these anecdotes seem fairly tame. Some readers may not appreciate the author's familiarity with various bodily orifices and the unusual things that some people have used them for, so the book may not be OK for kids. My own kids who are in their early teens, and undisturbed by the fact that there's more to us than our fingers and toes, really enjoyed the book and were quite moved by some of the stories. So were many friends. A perfect "people-read." A great gift.

I love stories from the ER, and this book is perfect. It has a wonderful variety of stories that range from hilarious to sad, and the length of each story also varies nicely. Some stories are only half a page long. Others are nearly 10 pages. It's a nice book to take with you when you want a nice collection of tales to read in a short amount of time.
Highly recommended!

Mark Brown has collected ER stories from folks around the country. During my first ER clinical I pulled the legs apart on a woman with a broken hip so that a catheter might be inserted, I listened to the ER head med complain that it was Saturday morning and you did not start the day with an MI, I listened to the PA joke about a patient with "fibro-myassia", and I watched the chief doc stonewall a patient because the patient seemed to think that his (the patient's) pain was all that mattered. No one ever died from pain, he said. Okay, think about it.

Mark Brown would not have used one of my stories in his book. What he writes about is more outstanding. ER is the sadly tragic interspersed with the joyful or lovely. A vagabond who insists that she once attended Julliard returns with her violin and plays four hours of glorious music without repeting a note. On another night in another town, ER gets to deal with an unconscious male who had been playing sex games with his bound wife. When the husband knocked himself out, all the bound wife could do is hollar until the firemen broke in.

I can hear Captain Picard from Star Trek issuing the command to "Make it so." Gosh, I wish that the ER was the place to make it so. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it isn't. Sometimes it's the ER staff that survives.

I bought this book origanally because my husband works as a charge nurse in the ER with Dr Mark Brown (the Author) I wanted to see what all the hype was about. I was not dissapointed! The moment I started reading I never put it down.There were so many stories. I couldnt help myself, I read it from beggining to end without stopping! I myself, am in nursing school, after reading this book I have decided the ER is where I need to be. I found myself laughing out loud, tearing up and praying for a good ending... sometimes all in the same story. I recommend this book to anyone interestead in the true stories of the ER, and anyone wanting to know more about the differnt world in which Doctors, Nurses and Techs subject themselves to daily. Keep a box of Kleenex nearby for both happy and unhappy tears. I can't wait for Vol 2!!!

Excellent collection of short stories. Every one is so unique in it's presentation. Some will make you cry, smile, groan, and even make you angry. Couldn't put it down. You wil read this one over and over.

"Emergency" is an easy-to-read book that gives you a fabulous insight of the world of trauma. The stories are uncensored and includes ALL the crazy stories one would face in the ER. You will definitely have a differnet outlook on life after reading this book. Recommended for ages 14 and older. Happy Reading :)

When I first saw this book, I thought it would be terrible anthology of doctors from ERs, who just wanted to make alittle money. So I passed it off for a book on military leadership.

But, the second time I saw it, I read it for the sake of reading something new. However, after getting through the first chapter, I read the whole book that afternoon.

This was a great book because it captured humans, who are doing comparatively little to change society. But, are saving the world in the eyes of their patients and anyone who comes in contact with them.

After reading every book of ER, paramedic, and nursing stories, I'd have to say that this is the second-best book ever written on this subject. "Believe It or Not! True Emergency Room Stories" by Kevin Pezzi, M.D. is definitely #1, and the other books just aren't in the same league.