Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
The riveting, pulse-pounding story of a year in the life of an emergency room through the eyes of one doctor trying to steer his patients through a crushing pandemic, a violent summer, and the collapse of the system meant to care for our most precious resource: our irreplaceable bodies As an emergency room doctor, Thomas Fisher has about three minutes to spend with the patients who come into the South Side of Chicago ward where he works. Gunshot: three minutes. Untreated wound that becomes life-threatening: three minutes. Drug overdose: three minutes. He examines his patients inside and out, touches their bodies, comforts and consoles them, holds their hands, and listens to their deepest secrets. Like them, he grew up on the South Side; this is his community and he has sworn to do what he can to heal his neighbors. During a global pandemic, however, Dr. Fisher spends those precious minutes hidden behind a mask, negotiating distance, stalked by thespecter of a plague.
Dr. Fisher goes home at the end of a shift haunted by the confusion in the eyes of his patients. Who is this man treating them from behind a mask? How did they end up in the ER? Why do they have to wait so many hours to be treated? His colleagues are no less bewildered; young doctors and veteran administrators alike, they work day and night in a confounding system. So he begins writing letters to patients and colleagues--letters he will never send--explaining it all to them as best he can, as someone who has worked on policy in boardrooms and theWhite House, who has seen patients die in the ER and friends killed on the streets of Chicago. And as the year stretches on, the realities of theER come home to Dr. Fisher in a way he could never have imagined.
This is not only the story of a dramatic year in the life of a Chicago ER but a primer in health care we all need to understand. Full of heartbreaking stories, compelling personal narrative, and penetrating analysis, this is a page-turning and mind-opening work that offers a fresh vision of health care as a foundation of social justice.
Synopsis
The riveting, pulse-pounding story of a year in the life of an emergency room doctor trying to steer his patients and colleagues through a crushing pandemic and a violent summer, amidst a healthcare system that seems determined to leave them behind As an emergency room doctor working on the rapid evaluation unit, Dr. Thomas Fisher has about three minutes to spend with the patients who come into the South Side of Chicago ward where he works before directing them to the next stage of their care. Bleeding: three minutes. Untreated wound that becomes life-threatening: three minutes. Kidney failure: three minutes. He examines his patients inside and out, touches their bodies, comforts and consoles them, and holds their hands on what is often the worst day of their lives. Like them, he grew up on the South Side; this is his community and he grinds day in and day out to heal them.
Through twenty years of clinical practice, time as a White House fellow, and work as a healthcare entrepreneur, Dr. Fisher has seen firsthand how our country's healthcare system can reflect the worst of society: treating the poor as expendable in order to provide top-notch care to a few. In The Emergency, Fisher brings us through his shift, as he works with limited time and resources to treat incoming patients. And when he goes home, he remains haunted by what he sees throughout his day. The brutal wait times, the disconnect between hospital executives and policymakers and the people they're supposed to serve, and the inaccessible solutions that could help his patients. To cope with the relentless onslaught exacerbated by the pandemic, Fisher begins writing letters to patients and colleagues--letters he will never send--explaining it all to them as best he can.
As fast-paced as an ER shift, The Emergency has all the elements that make doctors' stories so compelling--the high stakes, the fascinating science and practice of medicine, the deep and fraught interactions between patients and doctors, the persistent contemplation of mortality. And, with the rare dual perspective of somebody who also has his hands deep in policy work, Fisher connects these human stories to the sometimes-cruel machinery of care. Beautifully written, vulnerable and deeply empathetic, The Emergency is a call for reform that offers a fresh vision of health care as a foundation of social justice.