The Beauty in Breaking

Most of us have had an unfortunate visit to the Emergency Room (ER), however, behind-the-scenes remains a mystery. What are doctors thinking as they stitch up patients and how do they deal with the stresses that must come with the job? This book is written by an ER doctor who has attended many of the busiest and most chaotic ERs in the country. In this doctor’s case, her early life in a chaotic household prepared her for the chaos in her chosen profession. As she witnessed the domestic abuse inflicted on her mother and the resulting injustices, her mind was made up: she wanted to be in a helping profession. Because of her brilliance, she graduated from medical school, only to suffer the dissolution of her marriage and the destruction of the dreams she had relative to that married life.

We travel with her to new places, new hospitals, new patients and new stories of suffering, illness, and the loss of life. At this time in the throes of the pandemic, this makes for fascinating reading because it is compelling as well as being well written.