Customer Reviews

Life Support

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(33)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I always appreciate a good medical thriller, so I'm not the type to swoon at the first mention of blood.This book, however, had me so frightened that instead of feverishly forging ahead to see what happens next (which I desperately wanted to do), I had to put it down from time to time to regain my equilibrium. When Gerritsen is at the top of her game, as she is in this novel, I think nobody can beat her. Not Robin Cook, not anybody.

It's hard to describe the plot without giving away vital information, and I don't intend to be a spoiler. But I can tell you that the action starts hard and fast on the very first page, when a world-renowned surgeon, elderly but revered in his field, attempts a simple appendectomy and winds up killing his young, healthy patient in the most gruesome of ways. Our glimpse into his mind while this is going on is almost scarier than the act itself...and that is the first chapter of the book! It doesn't get calmer from there.

It seems that a number of very fit elderly men, in full control of their faculties and all living in a very upscale retirement home, are showing strange mental symptoms, one after the other, and eventually dying horrible deaths. Dr. Toby Harper,who heads the ER rotation at a local hospital, encounters two of these patients, and is at a complete loss to diagnose the problem, let alone solve it. Her dogged determination to get to the bottom of the illness(es) lands her in a conspiracy so sinister that she can't even guess at the true nature of it, except to know that it is putting herself, her dear elderly mother who suffers from Alzheimers, and seemingly her entire medical reputation at stake.

A subplot, wherein innocent young runaway girls are captured on the streets and impregnanted with god knows what, forms a counterpoint to the main tale.

All I can tell you is that Toby, probably the one innocent in the drama, ends up wanted by the police for murder--and the bad guys, who are diabolical, seem to be getting away scott-free with their intensely fiendish plot.

Sound good? Try it. You may not sleep well at night, but it's worth it. Tess Gerritsen is without peer when she truly believes in what she is writing about, and this book proves it. All I can say is, WOW!

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 missteps in their work coupled by efforts of the vile physicians have placed their jobs and personal safety in great jeopardy. And, gasp, both of them had to face real or potential malpractice lawsuits.

Tess Gerritsen can write attention-grabbing thrillers. No question of that, but is she going to use the same plot format for all of her stories? I realize that her latest novel, Bloodstream, which I have not read, takes place outside of a hospital, but a read through of the cover summary makes me awfully suspicious that the same plot is going to descend on us once again.

Please, TG, you seem to be a good thriller writer, but would you please, please, change some of the basic elements in your next story? If you have not read either of these novels, please do read one of them, and you will be well rewarded. If you read both I'm sure you will be drenched in déjà vu.

Toby Harper, night shift supervisor of Springer Hospital's emergency room, comes under administration's intense scrutiny and is called onto the carpet in front of a hospital board inquiry after a patient suffering from tremors and confusion walks out of the hospital and disappears. When the home health care aide who is taking care of her ailing elderly mother resigns and a colleague seeks to use the missing patient incident as a reason to dismiss Harper, stress turns Harper's job in a big city hospital into a daily battle for survival. As a second patient presents with the same symptoms and dies in the frantic chaos of a crash "Code Blue", Harper's investigation turns stress into full-blown crisis as she uncovers a conspiracy related to an illicit hormone therapy program at an upscale home for the aged.

As she did in Harvest, Gerritsen uses her experience in the medical field to flesh out a superb plot with chilling realism - the ever present fear of litigation as the smallest error can be considered in the light of hindsight outside the chaos of the emergency room; the heart breaking experience of watching Alzheimer's deprive a loved one of their memories and their faculty for independent living; the frightening symptoms of the rare and fatal neurodegenerative diseases carried by the newly discovered not quite alive prions, BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) and CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease); the extraordinary pressure exerted by pro-life groups on abortion clinics and those mothers wishing to terminate pregnancies; the lightning pace of unfolding events in a "Code Blue" emergency; the messy, harsh reality of an autopsy; and much more.

At the same time as the plot unfolds with such incredible speed, we witness a heart-warming set of extremely well-constructed characters come to grips with the dynamics of their relationships - Harper struggles with her homemaker sister, Vickie, over the time and difficulties involved with the care of their confused mother; a black Dr Robbie Brace and his white red-haired wife struggle with the cruel ostracism they receive as a result of their mixed race marriage; Daniel Dvorak, the medical examiner, faces inner turmoil as the legal requirements of his position conflict with his growing fondness for Toby Harper; Carl Wallenburg seeks professional revenge for the slight he perceives on his competence as Harper questions his judgment over the handling of a case.

A fact-paced, compelling page turner that proves Harvest was not a fluke and Gerritsen is here to stay! Great stuff!

Life Support is the first book I have read by this author, but it definitely won't be the last! The story is well paced and gripping with good characterization. The plot revolves around an upscale retirement community whose doctors have discovered a way to prolong an individual's natural lifespan; unfortunately, the procedure can also create horrific consequences. Dr. Toby Harper, a doctor working in a local ER, admits two of these retirees and is baffled by their symptoms. Her determination to get to the bottom of the case ultimately threatens her very life. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys medical thrillers.

I believe I'm actually going backwards as far as the chronology of her titles are concerned. The first book of hers that I read was "GRAVITY", which I thought was perfect. "LIFE SUPPORT" didn't disappoint either. What makes Gerritsen's medical thrillers work is her utter believability. Although a lot of the medical jargon went right over my head (I'm sure I'm not the only one) it certainly comes across that she knows what she's talking about. So far, both books that I've read have centered around an intelligent heroine, who beat the odds of having their reputations tarnished, and yet end up victorious. I would, however, have preferred to know a little bit more about the fate of the heroine's love interest in the book, maybe by Gerritsen explaining a bit more in detail as to the curability of the illness and so on.

Overall, I preferred GRAVITY to LIFE SUPPORT because the heroine in the former was not only a doctor, but a flight surgeon on a NASA shuttle. Makes for a great plot! If you haven't tried that one yet, you certainly should. I'm looking forward to checking out her latest novel THE SURGEON... just waiting to find a copy at a nice price. :)

This was the first book that I read by Tess Gerritsen. From the very first few pages, I was automatically taken into the fast-paced content. I literally had a hard time putting the book down! The characters were like pieces of a puzzle that Gerritsen created, but didn't put together until the end of the book. I have read quite a few medical thrillers in the past, but none have kept my curiosity going like this book. Gerritsen is a wonderful writer. I feel as though anyone can enjoy this book--although I loved it even more since I am a health care professional. This is truly an enjoyable read. I only hope that Gerritsen will continue to write novels that are as great as this one!!

If you reach for a Tess Gerritsen novel, you know what you're going to get -- a psychological thriller cloaked in enough medical terminology to have you sounding like an ER doc, with some graphic blood-and-guts scenes thrown in for good measure. While Gerritsen's books are not for the faint of heart, they are well-plotted and well-written, with strong characters and plenty of action. Because they're all written from that recipe, they do tend to run together, and "Life Support" is another one that fits that bill. The storyline involves tracing a killer virus whose roots lie in "fountain of youth" hormone transplants. With all the recent talk about biochemical warfare and killer viruses, this book is sure to strike a chord with the public.

One question -- what's with the naked babe on the cover of the book? I guess Gerritsen's having a hard time letting go of her romance roots.

A doctor's sense of responsibility to follow up on a missing patient turns into a dread-filled horror that leads her to the worst nightmare of her life. Dr. Toby Harper is a tough, intelligent woman with too much to do and too little time. An ER doctor working the night shift at Springer Hospital in the Boston suburbs, Toby must also act as caretaker for her Alzheimer's-stricken mother during the day while trying to catch some sleep. As difficult as her routine is, things take a turn for the worse when Dr. Harper finds her life completely unraveling in a matter of only weeks. Dr. Wallenberg, a geriatrics specialist, has devoted his career to researching a way to extend life beyond its normal span. His blind passion leads to the deaths of many, but in the name of progress he continues his experiments. He finds his subjects among the elderly who are wealthy enough and desperate enough to risk anything for a chance at longevity. Aside from the nuisance of dying patients, Dr. Wallenberg is well on his way to success until Toby Harper enters the scene.
This is yet another triumph for Gerritsen. I have also read Gerritsen's first thriller, "Harvest" (1996), and I thoroughly enjoyed both. "Life Support" has interesting medical aspects without getting too dry or detailed. It also benefits from realistic characters and dialogue, and a good dose of creepiness that heightens the suspense. The story's end is a bit disappointing as it dips into the improbable, but the book is nonetheless a definite must-read.

I didn't read Tess Gerritsen's books in the order they were published, so I've backtracked a bit. My first introduction to Tess Gerritsen was reading Bloodstream and I thoroughly enjoyed that story. My friend, the one responsible for getting me hooked on Gerritsen told me that Harvest and Life Support were even better than Bloodstream. I wondered if it could be possible and decided to see. The result: I only thought I was hooked on this author before, but after reading both of these other books, I'm definitely an avid fan!

Life Support focuses on Dr. Toby Harper, an emergency room doctor who works the night shift at Springer Hospital so she can take care of her elderly mother who suffers from Alzheimer's. Toby's normal, structured life is turned upside down when an elderly patient suffering from confusion is brought into her ER and then he suddenly disappears. Of course a surgeon bent on revenge against Toby uses this as a catalyst in an attempt for her dismissal. Her once boring life has suddenly turned into a battle - a fight to keep her job, a fight to continue taking care of her mother after her longtime home healthcare aide resigns, and a fight to figure out what happened to the disappearing patient.

Enter Dr. Carl Wallenburg, doctor from Brant Hill, an upscale retirement housing area. The missing patient just happened to live at Brant Hill and this is more than the coincidence Wallenberg wants everyone to believe when a second patient turns up disoriented and showing signs of seizures. When Toby tries to find a connection between Brant Hill and the patients, she begins to uncover a research program using an experimental hormone protocol that is touted as the Fountain of Youth. The only problem is that this procedure has a big drawback - a few of the patients are dying from it.

The plot is wonderfully laid out so that it keeps the reader on the edge of the seat throughout most of the book. Just when you relax another twist takes place and you're back on the edge once again. A few of the subplots are predictable, but that seems to be part of the overall design in drawing in the reader to the point where you don't know which subplot will be predictable and which will be a roller coaster ride. It will have you second-guessing yourself from the beginning to the end.

Character development is excellent. The physical descriptions are such that you can close your eyes and actually see the character vividly. The interactions bring emotions to the reader - you can feel the friendship between Dr. Toby Harper and Dr. Robbie Brace; you can feel the attraction between Dr. Toby Harper and Dr. Daniel Dvorak; you can feel the animosity between Dr. Carl Wallenburg and Dr. Toby Harper. The imagery used with these characters and scenes are so enticing, I actually felt as if I was Toby Harper.

Are there any negatives to the book? Yes, but you have to look very hard and be very picky about it. So in order to appear unbiased towards this author, I'll list a couple of negatives.

The sub-story of Molly Pickard is weak. Molly is a sixteen-year-old prostitute who is impregnated with cells that grow into pituitary glands that form a cross between a tumor and a deformed fetus (the formula for the Fountain of Youth). The idea that these scientists would use a prostitute to "host" their experiment seems far-fetched. Drugs, sexually transmitted diseases, etc., would ruin the "gland" they are trying to generate. It would seem that tricking a prostitute into being a "host" and believing that she's pregnant with a baby wouldn't be the best option for their project. (OK, so I told you it was a picky negative).

Then the romantic sub-plot of Dr. Dvorak's assistant and the cop seems unnecessary. It's alluded to and then nothing ever happens and it's not relevant to the main story, so why is it in there in the first place? Could it be a page filler? Possibly, but I'm not sure.

If you enjoy medical thrillers and take pleasure in a story that is both spine tingling and horrifying, then this is the next book you should read. You won't be disappointed!

Tess Gerritsen has done it again...she has managed to make me lose track of an entire day...and not reget it for a moment.
I have read some of her other books, and since I am a student in the medical profession, I like reading them based on her medical background. But thats not the only reason...the woman can plot a book with the best of them and ratchet up the tesnion level like no other.
Toby, an ER doctor sees something strange come into the emergency room while on shift, but the patient leaves the hospital, and Toby is blackballed at every turn by those who hold higher positions than she does.
The story of this mysterious disease in one steeped in money, wicked doctors, stolen babies and hidden truths. As each layer of the mystery is peeled back further and further, Toby loses those that are most dear to her. Will her fears win the day, or will the quest for truth and accountability be the ultimate victor?
When this book reaches its conclusion, you will be left with a breathless feeling of relief, but hungering for more of Ms. Gerritsen's novels. Certainly one of the best I have read in a long while.