Customer Reviews

Life in the Balance: Emergency Medicine and the Quest to Reverse Sudden Death

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

 

 

This is an extremely interesting and well-written book. I picked it up because I love medical case histories, doctor or nurse biographies, or anything of that nature. This book is a lively overview of resuscitation through the ages. Who knew that artificial respiration used to involve fireplace bellows, with the modern method not making an appearance until the 1960's? Ties together the contributions of many far-flung individuals as well as the historical contexts which shaped them. I love a great find like this!

This book is an excellent resource for those interested in resuscitation. It's a must-read for ACLS or BCLS practitioners. Eisenberg, himself a nationally-known expert in the field of prehospital care and layperson CPR, takes us on a tour of efforts of resusucation over history, some of them useful, some of them bizarre, but all of them by people who helped us learn what we know of the science of resuscitation today.

The case for reversing sudden death is anything but secure and proven. Recent works such as that of Stefan Timmermanns cast aspersions on CPR and ACLS on logistical and clinical grounds. The Eisenberg book is the essential first step one undergoes when entering into a very real controversy. It is a standard one uses to measure growing evidence from Delaware and Ontario not to mention rural Kansas that much of our time honored dogmas are no longer sacrosanct. The quest goes on for now, but maybe not forever.