The Emergency

A Year of Healing and Heartbreak in a Chicago ER

De: Thomas Fisher, Ta-Nehisi Coates - introduction

Narrado por: Thomas Fisher

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

“Gripping . . . eloquent . . . This book reminds us how permanently interesting our bodies are, especially when they go wrong.”—The New York Times

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Time

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.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“This book reminds us how permanently interesting our bodies are, especially when they go wrong. Fisher’s account of his days is gripping. . . . His frustration, his outraged intelligence, is palpable on every page. . . . the best account I’ve read about working in a busy hospital during Covid.” —The New York Times

“A briskly paced, heartfelt, often harrowing year in the life of an ER doctor on Chicago’s historically Black South Side.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“The Emergency is graphic and gut-wrenching, as it should be. It is an undeniable call for a just health-care system, as it will be.”—Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist

“With scalpel-like precision and searing patient stories, Thomas Fisher exposes the battlefield of medicine and the scarring—and often fatal—wounds of inequality. The Emergency is a bat call. Health care doesn’t care, inequality kills, and we must do better.”—Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, author of What the Eyes Don’t See

“The Emergency is a doctor’s-eye view of the layered crises afflicting a single Chicago community and the entire nation that surrounds it. By turns brutal and beautiful, this is a tale of life, death, and the people whose efforts often determine which of those two will prevail.”—Jelani Cobb, co-editor of The Matter of Black Lives

“Tired of reading about COVID-19? Don’t make the mistake of missing the best book about it to date. The Emergency is Thomas Fisher’s memoir of the first year of the pandemic’s grip on Chicago’s South Side, where he grew up and where he battled the disease, along with every other ailment and injury that reached his emergency room. This is no past-tense memoir but a gripping account of events as they happen. It’s beautifully rendered in the present tense and leavened by a series of letters he composed to, and in honor of, his patients. But this is also a book about our country, a wrenching and tender reflection on an aphorism Fisher invokes: When America catches a cold, black America catches pneumonia. It won’t take you long to read this fast-paced account, but you won’t forget it anytime soon.”—Paul Farmer, M.D., author of Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor

“Riveting . . . [Fisher] eloquently captures the intensity of the situation . . . and shares heartrending stories of victims. . . . The result is a powerful reckoning with racial injustice and a moving portrait of everyday heroism.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Dramatic . . . well written and compassionate . . . a persuasive, sympathetic . . . insider’s report on a broken system.”—Kirkus Reviews

preaching

The book is tough. Doesn't age well. I listen to a ridiculous amount of medical books being in the field. If you are looking for a book without hindsight into COVID, or if you have white guilt, this book is for you. This book is so ridiculous and altruistic, the author cashed in on a scare. Very liberal laypersons may enjoy it. Otherwise, don't waste your time or money.

An Exceptionally Accurate Portral

Truly loved and appreciated this book so much! I intend to purchase a hard copy and share with like minded Healthcare professionals and those who wish to learn more about the challenges in a broken system.
The author Dr. Fisher, humbly highlights the untimely Pandemic affecting the entire world with emphasis on the emergency department of one of the prestigious hospitals of our country, The University of Chicago Medical Center.
Surprisingly, bringing to light how VIPs verses the poorer south side of Chicago patients of lesser economical resources are treated vastly different including his own mother.
I humbly thank you for bringing truth to the forfront.

Very Enlightening!

A great book and narration! It held my attention the entire time. It was amazing to hear the perspective of an ER doctor during the height of Covid.

Enjoyed this MD's personal journey through COVID

I was captivated by the experience of this ER doc during COVID and the impact on clinicians and patients during this pandemic. I found most persuasive his explainer on how health inequities not only hurt black and brown patients, but destroy our healthcare system. I liked the way he made his professional experience feel so personal was very compelling. I also enjoyed the letter format and the way he integrated his family into the overall story. Although I am cynical, I am hopeful that the aspirations the author has for our healthcare system provide a roadmap to improve it.

Great book. Very insightful.

A must read for anyone considering a career in medicine or even a trip to the ER. Good book, good narration.

Reality of health care

This is an amazing story and very true to Chicago. People, if you or your family can drive to the hospital of choice please do. Insurance issues are very real.

This book is a bellwether for change

This book has left me awestruck and dumbstruck and moved to tears of pride and of heartbreak. Pride in knowing the author truly cares and in knowing and feeling his passion for human health, equity and Justice. This author is clearly embarking on a mission to change the healthcare system as we know it. I know this book will be part of that change. The author has artfully and thoughtfully shined a light on so much of what is wrong in our healthcare system. The way be intertwined policy and predicament with sincere letters to patients - and to his mom - it was brilliant and beautiful. This book is a triumph and a bellwether ringing for change. Dr. Fisher is and will continue to make a difference. Not just for the lives of south siders for whom he cares every day, but for our broken healthcare system. Our broken country.

Healing and Heartbreak says it all

I felt like I was riding on the author's roller-coaster. Such a mixture of disturbing problems, hard work and sensitive resolutions described by a Black ER doctor in a hospital serving a largely poor Black community. An excellent way to get a glimpse into a difficult world

The truths about racial inequities in healthcare are devastating!

It was a riveting and real story of the vast inequities in healthcare for Black Americans no matter their connections or socioeconomic status. Definitely worth a read.

A sobering must-read

This was a sobering account of the truths about the American healthcare system and how it has failed Black and poor people.

This is a must-read for anyone who cares enough to pursue better health outcomes for all people. This is a human rights issue that demands immediate remedy.

I applaud Dr. Thomas Fisher for having the courage to speak the truth as an insider about healthcare disparities that persist in this country.