The Knife and Gun Club: Scenes from an Emergency Room [Paperback]

Eugene Richards (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1995 | ISBN-10: 0871136244 | ISBN-13: 978-0871136244 | Edition: 1

A best-selling photo-essay by an award-winning photographer captures the day-to-day drama of a Denver emergency room in more than a hundred black-and-white photographs, interviews with hospital personnel, and transcripts of radio communication. Reissue.

Product Details

• Paperback: 237 pages
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Pr; 1 edition (November 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0871136244
• ISBN-13: 978-0871136244
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 7.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,148,680 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars True, candid, a real life glimpse of the EMS system ..., December 23, 1999

By 

"cpeaco1" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Knife and Gun Club: Scenes from an Emergency Room (Paperback)

The Knife and Gun Club gives a candid and uncensored look into Denver General Hospital's Emergency Room and Paramedic Division. Richards has captured the spirit of the personell of the Denver General ER. As an EMT trained at Denver General and the daughter of one of Denver General's first paramedics, I found this book very accurate and true to life. It spares no detail and gives the true flavor of one of the nations top trauma centers and emergency departments. If you have any interest in the emergency field, I suggest you read this book for a truthful look into an emergency room and the lives of the people who work in the emergency system. This book is fabulous, and very well written. Richards pulls the reader in to Denver General and all its supporting emergency systems. I have never read a better documentation or representation of the way emergency medicine in all its aspects truely is.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Things haven't changed much at all .., June 22, 2008

By 

Jane Harper "postmodern Catholic, PhD, NP" (Carbondale, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Knife and Gun Club: Scenes from an Emergency Room (Hardcover)

I am a nurse practitioner who has worked in trauma centers (mostly inner-city ones) for more than 20 years. "The Knife and Gun Club" was not only a trip down memory lane for me but also a decent reflection of the trauma business as it still occurs across the US -- the only really obsolete material in the book is the technology.

We have a higher success rate with really severe injuries now because the science has advanced, but unfortunately the social and economic forces that created the Friday Night Knife and Gun Club have not abated. Rather, they've increased, so the Club now meets every night in most cities in the US, with penetrating trauma (from knives, guns, ice picks, screwdrivers, etc.) increasing for the past 20 years.

If I were to recreate this book in the current system, the only thing I would add is the impact of 48 million uninsured and the change in hospital emergency departments as they have become primary care providers for those uninsured. These are the people who wait for 8, 12, 16 hours to see an ED provider because they cannot afford to see someone before an illness becomes serious.

Richards' book is (and deserves to be) a classic.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An un-censored look into emergency medicine & EMS in Denver, January 15, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (York, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Knife and Gun Club: Scenes from an Emergency Room (Hardcover)

Richard's provides an unbiased look into the world of emergency medicine at Denver General hospital and Denver Emergency Medical Services. This book couples full page black & white pictures with interviews with various health proffesionals. A true look at the events and emotions surrounding emergency care.