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Every Minute Is a Day: A Doctor, an Emergency Room, and a City Under Siege
With this debut, emergency room doctor Meyer collaborates with journalist Koeppel to tell a personal account of the COVID-19 pandemic. While the narrative predominately revolves around Meyer's story, it also includes vignettes from interviews with several other doctors, nurses, and medical assistants, to indicate the wide range of U.S. health care workers' experiences.
Meyer recounts the pandemic from the period before it was identified, through its emergence in the United States, the virus's terrifying uncontrolled community spread, and concern about the long-term repercussions of COVID-19. The co-authors argue that forging personal connections is vital to practicing emergency medicine, and they impart health care providers' efforts to compensate for the myriad ways that personal connection was hampered by pandemic precautionary measures.
The book isn't only a document of trauma; it also notes moments of joy, like when medical staff discovered new treatments with better patient outcomes, or when Meyer's mentor survived after contracting the virus.
Meyer recounts the pandemic from the period before it was identified, through its emergence in the United States, the virus's terrifying uncontrolled community spread, and concern about the long-term repercussions of COVID-19. The co-authors argue that forging personal connections is vital to practicing emergency medicine, and they impart health care providers' efforts to compensate for the myriad ways that personal connection was hampered by pandemic precautionary measures.
The book isn't only a document of trauma; it also notes moments of joy, like when medical staff discovered new treatments with better patient outcomes, or when Meyer's mentor survived after contracting the virus.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published August 3, 2021
41 people are currently reading
2618 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 127 reviews
October 2, 2021
The book started with a simple text from Dan Koeppel to his cousin Robert Meyer, right at the beginning of the pandemic, he asked him how he was doing and how he rated, on a scale of 1-10, where he was in handling the crisis. '100' was the answer. This waswhen no-one knew what to do, when test-kits and PPE were hard for hospitals to come by and hospitals were swamped by people who couldn't breathe.
And from that text, Dan became the stress-reliever for Rob. He got texts, emails, phone calls, voice memos, personal discussions, anything he needed to say that he didn't want to tell his family who would worry. And out of them grew this book.
The book is all about the impact of Covid on the hospital and staff. How little they could do for people, how much they feared getting it themselves and passing it on to their families. How people suffering from other treatable illnesses couldn't get treated, there was no room in the hospitals. Every non-emergency surgery, everywhere, was defered or cancelled, every necessary treatment was - if you couldn't pull strings, as the author did for the writer when he was diagnosed with bladder cancer - postponed, delayed and for some that was too late.
My Covid story.
I got vaccinated, the first I had a bad reaction to, in bed for a few days, ill for 5 and it gave me tinnitus, hissing in my ears that has never gone away. The second was a two-day reaction.
I didn't get it for me I thought I probably had antibodies, but it was for supposed herd immunity, which is never going to happen because the virus mutates too fast. Also it is not a traditional vaccine that protects against getting the disease, but one that produces antibodies that will lessen the impact of it to generally no symptoms or very light ones. Still, it protects the hospitals from being deluged with so many Covid patients that those with other diseases cannot get into the hospitals and will continue suffering when they could have been treated, had surgery, been cured.
After reading this book, I see that we owe it to those who are not in good health to protect the availability of treatment for them. It could be any one of us that gets something that isn't as urgent as emergency care that needs diagnosis, treatment or worse - elective surgery, and we might not be able to get it if the hospital is full of Covid patients. Get vaccinated.
____________________
Back in Wuhan in February 2020 Fang Fang was writing Wuhan Diary: Dispatches from the Original Epicenter. The Chinese did everything they could to suppress it. Back then there were 70,000 people in Wuhan who had it. On worldometer.com China only admits to having 96K infections in the entire country up to today. Back then Fang Fang says the crematoria couldn't keep up and they were building hospitals and crematoria literally overnight. I believe her, I think China is the evil empire.
And from that text, Dan became the stress-reliever for Rob. He got texts, emails, phone calls, voice memos, personal discussions, anything he needed to say that he didn't want to tell his family who would worry. And out of them grew this book.
The book is all about the impact of Covid on the hospital and staff. How little they could do for people, how much they feared getting it themselves and passing it on to their families. How people suffering from other treatable illnesses couldn't get treated, there was no room in the hospitals. Every non-emergency surgery, everywhere, was defered or cancelled, every necessary treatment was - if you couldn't pull strings, as the author did for the writer when he was diagnosed with bladder cancer - postponed, delayed and for some that was too late.
My Covid story.
I got vaccinated, the first I had a bad reaction to, in bed for a few days, ill for 5 and it gave me tinnitus, hissing in my ears that has never gone away. The second was a two-day reaction.
I didn't get it for me I thought I probably had antibodies, but it was for supposed herd immunity, which is never going to happen because the virus mutates too fast. Also it is not a traditional vaccine that protects against getting the disease, but one that produces antibodies that will lessen the impact of it to generally no symptoms or very light ones. Still, it protects the hospitals from being deluged with so many Covid patients that those with other diseases cannot get into the hospitals and will continue suffering when they could have been treated, had surgery, been cured.
After reading this book, I see that we owe it to those who are not in good health to protect the availability of treatment for them. It could be any one of us that gets something that isn't as urgent as emergency care that needs diagnosis, treatment or worse - elective surgery, and we might not be able to get it if the hospital is full of Covid patients. Get vaccinated.
____________________
Back in Wuhan in February 2020 Fang Fang was writing Wuhan Diary: Dispatches from the Original Epicenter. The Chinese did everything they could to suppress it. Back then there were 70,000 people in Wuhan who had it. On worldometer.com China only admits to having 96K infections in the entire country up to today. Back then Fang Fang says the crematoria couldn't keep up and they were building hospitals and crematoria literally overnight. I believe her, I think China is the evil empire.
September 28, 2021
"I live by the creed 'Do no harm.' But Covid-19 has done the harm, not by a lack of medical competence or goodwill, but because it is a disease that physicians - and an entire medical profession, an entire nation, and entire world - was not prepared to handle." -- Rob Meyer, M.D. on page 199
Robert Meyer is an emergency medicine physician of twenty-five years experience, and part of the E/R staff at a Bronx-based medical center that is routinely one of the busiest (handling well over a quarter-million patients every year) in the New York City metropolitan area. When his cousin, author Dan Koeppel, sent a text message to him in the early stages of the 2020 pandemic - inquiring "On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being overwhelmed, where do you think you are?" - Dr. Meyer honestly replied "100." Thus began a steady communication between them which resulted in Every Minute is a Day, with Dr. Meyer documenting his work and the fluctuating situation from March to September 2020.
This was a very engaging book - refreshingly free of any sort of overt political stance / bashing or 'soapbox' moments that could be divisive - as it simply places the reader in the trenches alongside Meyer and a handful of his colleagues as they are inundated with a record number of cases. They are depicted as a professional and hardworking group (their motto could be borrowed from the U.S. Marine Corps mantra "improvise, adapt, and overcome") who all somehow manage not to crack up, even when some of their very own friends and loved ones - including a respected older physician who mentored a number of the staff, including Dr. Meyer - suffer and/or perish from the disease. At the risk of sounding morbid, this was a really page-turning vivid account that is likely an excellent representation of what was happened at countless urban hospitals across the nation.
Robert Meyer is an emergency medicine physician of twenty-five years experience, and part of the E/R staff at a Bronx-based medical center that is routinely one of the busiest (handling well over a quarter-million patients every year) in the New York City metropolitan area. When his cousin, author Dan Koeppel, sent a text message to him in the early stages of the 2020 pandemic - inquiring "On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being overwhelmed, where do you think you are?" - Dr. Meyer honestly replied "100." Thus began a steady communication between them which resulted in Every Minute is a Day, with Dr. Meyer documenting his work and the fluctuating situation from March to September 2020.
This was a very engaging book - refreshingly free of any sort of overt political stance / bashing or 'soapbox' moments that could be divisive - as it simply places the reader in the trenches alongside Meyer and a handful of his colleagues as they are inundated with a record number of cases. They are depicted as a professional and hardworking group (their motto could be borrowed from the U.S. Marine Corps mantra "improvise, adapt, and overcome") who all somehow manage not to crack up, even when some of their very own friends and loved ones - including a respected older physician who mentored a number of the staff, including Dr. Meyer - suffer and/or perish from the disease. At the risk of sounding morbid, this was a really page-turning vivid account that is likely an excellent representation of what was happened at countless urban hospitals across the nation.
August 6, 2021
Written from the perspective of a 20 year emergency department physician in the Bronx, 20 years in the same hospital. He told his ideas, thoughts, worries, fears, everything, to his cousin with whom he collaborated on this memoir, in serial essays, to report on the beginning of the Covid-19 epidemic in New York City. The book covers the time period from the days of the early rumors of a new illness in early March, 2020 through to October of 2020 when the disease has already gone through more than one phase.
Much of what I read I have had glimpses of over the past 18 months, but now I feel that I have a better idea of what was happening in all of those ERs in hard hit areas in the spring of 2020, as well as in the ICUs as everyone struggled to learn how to treat these patients who didn’t follow the disease courses seen before. And of course, now the same is happening again but with a difference; the doctors of 2021 are benefiting from lessons learned on 2020.
While there are hard and difficult moments here, there are also uplifting and happy moments. The camaraderie among all staff is a high point even if at times it consists of allowing others to be alone. Perhaps the major takeaway I found here as I read was that, in my words but Dr. Meyer’s thought, we ( the nation, the world, the medical world) can’t afford to ever be caught this flat footed again...and there will be an again, another virus.
I do recommend reading this book if you have enough personal distance from Covid right now. You can get a realistic view of the difficult but very caring way these many health care workers did their utmost to help those who entered their emergency department.
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.
Much of what I read I have had glimpses of over the past 18 months, but now I feel that I have a better idea of what was happening in all of those ERs in hard hit areas in the spring of 2020, as well as in the ICUs as everyone struggled to learn how to treat these patients who didn’t follow the disease courses seen before. And of course, now the same is happening again but with a difference; the doctors of 2021 are benefiting from lessons learned on 2020.
While there are hard and difficult moments here, there are also uplifting and happy moments. The camaraderie among all staff is a high point even if at times it consists of allowing others to be alone. Perhaps the major takeaway I found here as I read was that, in my words but Dr. Meyer’s thought, we ( the nation, the world, the medical world) can’t afford to ever be caught this flat footed again...and there will be an again, another virus.
I do recommend reading this book if you have enough personal distance from Covid right now. You can get a realistic view of the difficult but very caring way these many health care workers did their utmost to help those who entered their emergency department.
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.
October 17, 2021
I wasn't sure I was ready to read *about* the pandemic since we are still in it, but this is a compelling close account from an emergency room doctor (and colleagues) who works at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx.
He details the quick adaptability of medical professionals as information changed and cases grew, and even as covid changed in how it presented. I didn't realize the gastrointestinal symptoms had become so prevalent, and I also didn't know that paranoia and confusion were so common. (I knew there were patients that continued to "not believe" they had the virus, but assumed that was more political than virological.) I hadn't heard that flipping patients on their stomachs saved so many from having to be intubated.
There is also a lot about the emotional toll, on emergency medicine as its own specialty, and historical context for medical training in this region. (Learning from HIV/AIDS and 9/11 still didn't prepare them for scenarios where every facility was overloaded and supplies ran out.)
He details the quick adaptability of medical professionals as information changed and cases grew, and even as covid changed in how it presented. I didn't realize the gastrointestinal symptoms had become so prevalent, and I also didn't know that paranoia and confusion were so common. (I knew there were patients that continued to "not believe" they had the virus, but assumed that was more political than virological.) I hadn't heard that flipping patients on their stomachs saved so many from having to be intubated.
There is also a lot about the emotional toll, on emergency medicine as its own specialty, and historical context for medical training in this region. (Learning from HIV/AIDS and 9/11 still didn't prepare them for scenarios where every facility was overloaded and supplies ran out.)
August 3, 2021
“People are dying because nobody knows what to do.”
This book’s content is breathtaking. From the perspective of compassionate and dedicated medical angels of NYC’s most overwhelmed hospital, Montefiore. Staff is blindsided by the fast-moving virus and caught unprepared for the massive number of sick and dying people walking into their ER. One statistic states that the hospital’s three admissions at the beginning of March grew to more than 1,000 by the end of the month. A must read!
This book’s content is breathtaking. From the perspective of compassionate and dedicated medical angels of NYC’s most overwhelmed hospital, Montefiore. Staff is blindsided by the fast-moving virus and caught unprepared for the massive number of sick and dying people walking into their ER. One statistic states that the hospital’s three admissions at the beginning of March grew to more than 1,000 by the end of the month. A must read!
June 1, 2021
Read if you: Want a stark, moving, and harrrowing personal account of hospital medicine in the COVID-19 era.
The COVID-19 books are here--mostly nonfiction now, but fiction is on the way. Like other major historical events, personal accounts are the first ones to publish, and the ones that seem to be the most popular with readers. Although this is not a long read, it's emotionally powerful and memorable long after you read it.
Librarians/booksellers: Definitely purchase if nonfiction books about the coronavirus have been popular.
Many thanks to Crown Publishing and NetGalley for a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review,
The COVID-19 books are here--mostly nonfiction now, but fiction is on the way. Like other major historical events, personal accounts are the first ones to publish, and the ones that seem to be the most popular with readers. Although this is not a long read, it's emotionally powerful and memorable long after you read it.
Librarians/booksellers: Definitely purchase if nonfiction books about the coronavirus have been popular.
Many thanks to Crown Publishing and NetGalley for a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review,
September 9, 2021
I listened to this book and the audio version was fantastic. The NY accent added to the story and made me feel as though Dr. Meyer was talking to me. The details of his ER experience in "the covid zone" will be with me for quite some time, and as someone whose life has been saved by incredible doctors - thank you for all that you do 🖤
August 2, 2021
Like many healthcare workers, I have often turned to narratives to cope with my work, and these have been plentiful during the (COVID) pandemic. But eventually one reaches a point where you can no longer look into the mirror of your daily life – and I have reached that limit much sooner than I expected.
Every Minute Is A Day by Meyer (MD) and Koeppel is dedicated to the “many, many people [who] died alone, without their loved ones.” This is important: the express purpose of this book was “to honor and respect those this disease claimed.”
I cringed when I first considered my rating for Every Minute Is A Day. I did not exactly love Meyer’s memoir, but I do not doubt that it will find its audience of ardent readers.
With the advent of COVID literature, I have often found myself drawing parallels with books written about World War II. For as long as I have been a reader, WWII has been a favourite topic of authors and readers. Why is it that the world so loves a good Auschwitz novel?
Reading Every Minute Is A Day gave me some insight into that phenomenon. While WWII took place long enough ago that most readers alive today did not experience it personally; it occurred recently enough that the effects on our lives remain tangible.
Conversely, the world is still living COVID, and throughout Every Minute I have not been able to clear the term “too soon” from my mind. Meyer writes how “the rules kept changing” – and they continue to do so. In some ways, Every Minute feels like a tribute written too soon.
Does Meyer’s memoir achieve what it set out to do? I believe so. It may clear up much confusion for laypersons. I think it may provide peace when people think about their relatives, and how they could not be with them in their final moments. I hope that survivors will know not only that their healthcare workers cared, but how they cared. I hope they will know that the masks, the PPE, the difficulty communicating, were all as challenging for their doctors as for patients and relatives. That death weighed heavily on them, and that any perceived inadequacies were doubly perceived by healthcare workers themselves.
So much of the memoir should be relatable, but the authors actually detract from that by focussing largely on Montefiore – a hospital they are clearly, and rightfully, very proud of. But that singular focus leads to an atmosphere of “us, alone” – we alone were suffering. We alone were scrambling to make things work. That this is not the author’s intention is not the point – the impression that it creates, is.
What I miss most of all is growth, and hope. Every Minute depicts so well the despair. The confusion. The feelings of failure. But by the end of it all, I cannot see the growth I would have liked to see, and once more I venture that it comes down to timing. The author cannot depict that which is yet to come fully to fruition. Again, I do not think the time is right for THIS memoir. Soon, but not yet.
I received an advanced review copy of this book via Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Every Minute Is A Day by Meyer (MD) and Koeppel is dedicated to the “many, many people [who] died alone, without their loved ones.” This is important: the express purpose of this book was “to honor and respect those this disease claimed.”
I cringed when I first considered my rating for Every Minute Is A Day. I did not exactly love Meyer’s memoir, but I do not doubt that it will find its audience of ardent readers.
With the advent of COVID literature, I have often found myself drawing parallels with books written about World War II. For as long as I have been a reader, WWII has been a favourite topic of authors and readers. Why is it that the world so loves a good Auschwitz novel?
Reading Every Minute Is A Day gave me some insight into that phenomenon. While WWII took place long enough ago that most readers alive today did not experience it personally; it occurred recently enough that the effects on our lives remain tangible.
Conversely, the world is still living COVID, and throughout Every Minute I have not been able to clear the term “too soon” from my mind. Meyer writes how “the rules kept changing” – and they continue to do so. In some ways, Every Minute feels like a tribute written too soon.
Does Meyer’s memoir achieve what it set out to do? I believe so. It may clear up much confusion for laypersons. I think it may provide peace when people think about their relatives, and how they could not be with them in their final moments. I hope that survivors will know not only that their healthcare workers cared, but how they cared. I hope they will know that the masks, the PPE, the difficulty communicating, were all as challenging for their doctors as for patients and relatives. That death weighed heavily on them, and that any perceived inadequacies were doubly perceived by healthcare workers themselves.
So much of the memoir should be relatable, but the authors actually detract from that by focussing largely on Montefiore – a hospital they are clearly, and rightfully, very proud of. But that singular focus leads to an atmosphere of “us, alone” – we alone were suffering. We alone were scrambling to make things work. That this is not the author’s intention is not the point – the impression that it creates, is.
What I miss most of all is growth, and hope. Every Minute depicts so well the despair. The confusion. The feelings of failure. But by the end of it all, I cannot see the growth I would have liked to see, and once more I venture that it comes down to timing. The author cannot depict that which is yet to come fully to fruition. Again, I do not think the time is right for THIS memoir. Soon, but not yet.
I received an advanced review copy of this book via Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
September 15, 2021
My Shelf Awareness review: The Bronx's Montefiore Medical Center serves an ethnically diverse community of the working poor in New York City. Between March and September 2020, 6,000 Covid-19 patients crossed its threshold. Nearly 1,000 of them died. Unfolding in terrifying real time, Every Minute Is a Day is emergency room doctor Robert Meyer's riveting diary of an unprecedented crisis.
Compared to AIDS and 9/11, the previous medical disasters of Meyer's 25-year career, Covid felt bewildering for how quickly the situation changed. High fever and dangerously low blood oxygen were the initial hallmarks of the illness, but new symptoms and potential therapies emerged all the time. Medical staff learned by doing. For instance, "proning" (turning people onto their stomachs) was found to forestall intubation in many cases.
As the morgue filled up, Meyer was distressed not just by patients dying apart from loved ones, but at the thought of seriously ill people avoiding hospital treatment for fear of infection. Relating bereavements from his past-his mother was killed by a drunk driver; his son's friend died of cancer-helps him set the pandemic in context. He also weaves in Montefiore's history and his colleagues' struggles. Covid turned personal when his mentor and the ER director's father both tested positive.
Compiled into a firsthand account by journalist Dan Koeppel, Meyer's cousin, and based on interviews as well as e-mails and texts they exchanged, this is hard-hitting nonfiction in the vein of Five Days at Memorial. Its re-creation of an atmosphere of daily panic and uncertainty makes it as absorbing as any thriller.
(Posted with permission from Shelf Awareness.)
Compared to AIDS and 9/11, the previous medical disasters of Meyer's 25-year career, Covid felt bewildering for how quickly the situation changed. High fever and dangerously low blood oxygen were the initial hallmarks of the illness, but new symptoms and potential therapies emerged all the time. Medical staff learned by doing. For instance, "proning" (turning people onto their stomachs) was found to forestall intubation in many cases.
As the morgue filled up, Meyer was distressed not just by patients dying apart from loved ones, but at the thought of seriously ill people avoiding hospital treatment for fear of infection. Relating bereavements from his past-his mother was killed by a drunk driver; his son's friend died of cancer-helps him set the pandemic in context. He also weaves in Montefiore's history and his colleagues' struggles. Covid turned personal when his mentor and the ER director's father both tested positive.
Compiled into a firsthand account by journalist Dan Koeppel, Meyer's cousin, and based on interviews as well as e-mails and texts they exchanged, this is hard-hitting nonfiction in the vein of Five Days at Memorial. Its re-creation of an atmosphere of daily panic and uncertainty makes it as absorbing as any thriller.
(Posted with permission from Shelf Awareness.)
March 1, 2021
This is a unique partnership - written from the perspective of Dr. Rob Meyer, who was on the ground during the early days of COVID in NYC, but authored by both Meyer and his cousin, writer Dan Koeppel. It's a harrowing read, not only because we are still in the throes of the pandemic that doesn't seem to ever let up, but because it draws the reader back to the time when we still didn't know much about the disease, and it killed so fast. My experience locked down in suburban Ohio was nowhere near as challenging as those of the people in the Bronx during that scary time. Though it's not easy to read, it's a valuable chronicle of that time, deftly written and looking back with the perspective we have now. More books about this topic will surely be released with even more information, but this raw and honest account will stick in my mind.
January 24, 2025
This book is incredible. The insight into the ER department and what the staff went through, not just at work trying to save lives but also their personal lives. So many raw emotions and lives that were affected by this virus. Great read!
October 12, 2021
Covid is real. Life is sacred. This virus has thrown a large wrench in hopefully the way that we now prioritize our lives. And as my pastor recently said, the primacy of love and compassion is clear.
The curve ball with the st 3 bladder ca got me. Thank you for the compassion and dedication and selflessness of those mentioned therein.
The curve ball with the st 3 bladder ca got me. Thank you for the compassion and dedication and selflessness of those mentioned therein.
January 22, 2023
Not sure why, but I found the book somewhat lacking. The dedication and stress of the medical professionals during the early days of the pandemic is well explained, but I tend to gravitate more towards books that explain the science of an illness and its treatment and the social impact with more data. This is a book about mostly one man’s personal experiences as a doctor during what can be rightfully described as a major catastrophe. It does a decent job of that, but as an examination of COVID writ large, it is lacking.
October 10, 2021
A very tough, but excellent read. The story of an emergency room doctor experiencing a pandemic should be read by everyone, especially people who deny the truth about Covid-19.
December 18, 2021
Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.
Every Minute Is a Day is an honest and well told memoir of an ER doctor and his experiences on the front lines of the pandemic. Released 3rd Aug 2021 by Crown Publishing, it's 256 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.
This is a compelling, honestly written, and sobering look at life on the front lines for healthcare professionals during the early days of the pandemic. He discusses the bewilderment and frustration of supply and support scarcity, insecurity about how covid would develop, and burnout from stress and overwork. He also does a good job of explaining the finite resources they work with on a normal basis and how they have been stretched beyond the breaking point by the demands from the pandemic.
I work in healthcare in Northern Europe and although I'm not on the front lines (I work in a lab with zero patient contact), I certainly recognized many of the overwhelming feelings of doubt and fear he relates. How would we take care of the non-covid patients? How should we prioritize resources and treatment for people who don't have covid? How do we prevent covid patients from spreading infection to the healthcare staff and other non-covid patients? How can hospitals care for these patients without necessary supplies?
Five stars. This is not always a comfortable read, but I feel it's an important one.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
Every Minute Is a Day is an honest and well told memoir of an ER doctor and his experiences on the front lines of the pandemic. Released 3rd Aug 2021 by Crown Publishing, it's 256 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.
This is a compelling, honestly written, and sobering look at life on the front lines for healthcare professionals during the early days of the pandemic. He discusses the bewilderment and frustration of supply and support scarcity, insecurity about how covid would develop, and burnout from stress and overwork. He also does a good job of explaining the finite resources they work with on a normal basis and how they have been stretched beyond the breaking point by the demands from the pandemic.
I work in healthcare in Northern Europe and although I'm not on the front lines (I work in a lab with zero patient contact), I certainly recognized many of the overwhelming feelings of doubt and fear he relates. How would we take care of the non-covid patients? How should we prioritize resources and treatment for people who don't have covid? How do we prevent covid patients from spreading infection to the healthcare staff and other non-covid patients? How can hospitals care for these patients without necessary supplies?
Five stars. This is not always a comfortable read, but I feel it's an important one.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
January 24, 2022
Robert Meyer is an ER doctor at the Bronx's Montefiore Medical Center. His cousin, Dan Koeppell, is a former Executive Editor at NyTimes Wirecutter. Together they embarked on documenting the 1st year of Pandemic through the eyes of the doctors, the reporter and the patients. The project began with a simple text between cousins, one asking the other "how you doing".
From the book jacket:
The result is an intimate record of historic turmoil and grief from the perspective of a remarkable ER doctor.
I could not agree more that Dr. Meyer is remarkable. Everything you would want in your own physician and more.
I know that there are some who cannot read this type of book right now, and I understand that. I come from a different perspective. I have worried and thought of and prayed (something I do not do too often) for all of medical personnel, through out this tragic time in history. My feelings are: if these people can live, breath and endure and then write about it, they deserve my attention.
Well written, and researched. If nothing else, put it on your "possible" lists, or that secret phone list (looking at you Amy ;) ) You won't regret getting to know this doctor.
From the book jacket:
The result is an intimate record of historic turmoil and grief from the perspective of a remarkable ER doctor.
I could not agree more that Dr. Meyer is remarkable. Everything you would want in your own physician and more.
I know that there are some who cannot read this type of book right now, and I understand that. I come from a different perspective. I have worried and thought of and prayed (something I do not do too often) for all of medical personnel, through out this tragic time in history. My feelings are: if these people can live, breath and endure and then write about it, they deserve my attention.
Well written, and researched. If nothing else, put it on your "possible" lists, or that secret phone list (looking at you Amy ;) ) You won't regret getting to know this doctor.
October 4, 2021
This book chronicles the catastrophic beginning of the Covid pandemic in the USA from the viewpoint of Dr. Robert Meyer, who worked in New York City in the Montefiore emergency department, one of the largest in the country. They were quickly flooded with the first wave of sick and dying people. There were no guidelines for treating Covid, so they treated symptoms and learned more from experience.
The book also has background on the author's career, including the very humane philosophy/approach of the Montefiore emergency department. They were patient-centered, paying a lot of attention to each person, but the pandemic made that almost impossible.
The book seemed slow-moving to me at first, but as I read on, I realized that the background at the beginning was needed to set the stage, and it comes together very well. As well as the hectic situation at the hospital, the book includes accounts of the author's family, friends, and associates who were affected by Covid. The pandemic was traumatic for all the medical providers, and you can see how telling the story provides some therapy for Dr. Meyer. His co-author is his cousin, a journalist, who also figures into the book.
The book also has background on the author's career, including the very humane philosophy/approach of the Montefiore emergency department. They were patient-centered, paying a lot of attention to each person, but the pandemic made that almost impossible.
The book seemed slow-moving to me at first, but as I read on, I realized that the background at the beginning was needed to set the stage, and it comes together very well. As well as the hectic situation at the hospital, the book includes accounts of the author's family, friends, and associates who were affected by Covid. The pandemic was traumatic for all the medical providers, and you can see how telling the story provides some therapy for Dr. Meyer. His co-author is his cousin, a journalist, who also figures into the book.
December 25, 2021
I didn’t think I wanted to read a book that had anything to do with the Covid pandemic, let alone a book revolving around a New York City emergency room at the very beginning of the pandemic, but I decided to push my limits and I’m really glad I did.
I’m even more glad that the co-authors decided to publish this.
It is a heart rending, but very necessary, record of what the first six months of the pandemic were like.
Reading this book is an essential reminder of how frightening those early days really were - and in raging reminder considering that we are still in the grips of the pandemic as I write this review.
This book is a reminder of how little everyone knew about this virus, how devastating it was for healthcare providers to watch patients sicken and die at unfathomable rates, how horrifying it was to watch the news, how much scientists were scrambling to find answers, how quickly recommendations for best practices changed, how everything felt unreal and all too real at the same time.
Maybe never forget.
I’m even more glad that the co-authors decided to publish this.
It is a heart rending, but very necessary, record of what the first six months of the pandemic were like.
Reading this book is an essential reminder of how frightening those early days really were - and in raging reminder considering that we are still in the grips of the pandemic as I write this review.
This book is a reminder of how little everyone knew about this virus, how devastating it was for healthcare providers to watch patients sicken and die at unfathomable rates, how horrifying it was to watch the news, how much scientists were scrambling to find answers, how quickly recommendations for best practices changed, how everything felt unreal and all too real at the same time.
Maybe never forget.
October 11, 2021
Personal account of an ER doctor in the Bronx coping with COVID-19 from the first days on. It’s shocking how casual they were with it from the beginning limiting their diagnoses to such specific symptoms that they missed many cases. Testing and PPE was short so they used it sparingly. But something that I find strange is that the US didn’t follow what was successful in other countries so our sickness and death rate was so much higher. This book is a snippet of the American experience of COVID-19.
March 12, 2022
Oh, I loved this book. Fast read. Medical jargon is made clear for non-medical readers, and the story itself unfolds like a thriller. Think Crichton.
If you want to place yourself in one of the nation's busiest ER's in the crucial first days of a global pandemic without exposing yourself to the killer virus, this is the way to do it.
Take time to read this. You'll want to salute every hospital employee you see.
If you want to place yourself in one of the nation's busiest ER's in the crucial first days of a global pandemic without exposing yourself to the killer virus, this is the way to do it.
Take time to read this. You'll want to salute every hospital employee you see.
April 9, 2023
I found this book somewhat lacking (though I am not completely sure why) and at points very wordy and description-heavy in ways that didn't add to the book, the message, my understanding, etc. I found some parts very repetitive, which although very educational regarding his day to day life, did make for slow parts. I also found there was too much history regarding his hospital's role in the development of emergency medicine and in the community, though I'm unsure if others would have found this interesting and adding important context.
August 15, 2021
Great perspective.
December 27, 2021
Couldn’t put this down; so much resonated with me from the perspective of an educator living during COVID. Definitely cried a few times. So much emotion.
July 21, 2022
Checked this book out at the Glens Falls Public Library on vacation. I read it in an afternoon-it was that engrossing…and heartbreaking. Written by a 25 year veteran emergency room doctor in the Bronx, the epicenter of the first Covid-19 surge in the US, this book showed firsthand the horror of the pandemic on healthcare workers as they dealt not only with patients’ health in a crisis of never before seen proportions but also of their own families.
August 23, 2021
I can't believe that this book and thousands of stories like this one are out there and there are still people who won't believe this pandemic is the real deal.
Devastating.
Devastating.
December 16, 2021
Rounded up from 3.75. Interesting, touching, but I was more moved by Voices from the Pandemic by Eli Saslow.
June 12, 2022
I checked this out as an ebook, forgetting the focus of the book - a Bronx ER doctor's experience with covid during the opening 6 months of the pandemic. (I'd put it on my Goodreads to-read health/medicine shelf and when requesting books from Libby, I just looked at the title of this on my shelf and not the description as well) I almost returned the ebook, unread, because I thought "oh man, too soon. Not ready to be immersed in that." However, I decided to read the first few pages and I was hooked. Ended up reading it in about a day, just devoured it.
Meyer is my age - mid fifties - but he is more responsible and smart and focused than I could ever be. Wow, to even choose to be an ER doctor, my heart rate is spiking just thinking about it lol. I thought it interesting to learn that many ER are very athletic and very much extreme sports types. It ties in with their job choice, for sure. That sort of adrenaline junkie who is so naturally laid back that they are less affected by fear and stress; it takes a lot to get them anxious and upset. Meyer is a real "roll with the punches" sort of guy so when the pandemic situation starts stressing him out, you know it's really really bad.
Living in NYC during this time period, I kept thinking about what I was doing and feeling during the time Meyer & his hospital were struggling to treat the wave of sick people flooding the ER. Maybe I was more drawn to the book because I lived through it as well? I mean, obviously not to the extent the overwhelmed hospital workers lived through it. Still, it was a surreal and scary time. The streets were deserted like a zombie movie. Driving through Times Square in the middle of the day and it being totally empty - very creepy! One day out my bedroom window I could see 4 ambulances in front of different apartment buildings, all picking up covid patients. A woman on my block died and it took about 12 hours for the coroner's van to pick up the body, there was such a huge backlog of dead people. Reading about Meyers seeing a line of ambulances as far as the eye could see, waiting to drop people off at the emergency room was very powerful and disturbing. Running out of room in the morgue, the refrigerator trucks for all the extra dead people, having to bury people in mass graves without funerals.....people in other parts of the country did not experience such devastating events.
Getting a bird's eye view of the situation in the ER, where no one was except for staff and the sick(family were not allowed in) fascinated me. No one had ever gone through anything like this. They were having to make it up as they went along. No one knew what was happening, the situation changed by the hour. No one knew how easily it was transmitted. Staff ran out of PPE, out of vital meds, out of beds, out of stretchers, out of body bags....it was a complete shitshow. Yet the staff kept coming to work. They kept trying. They didn't give up. It brought tears to my eyes, how difficult it was for them.
I'm probably convincing people not to read this, it is sounding so heavy. It is a heavy topic, obviously. But the way the book is written, the way it is structured and plotted, it was almost like the book equivalent of an excellent action movie. Very fast paced, very "what is going to happen next?!" vibe. I highly recommend at least trying to read the book. Maybe it will be too soon for you or maybe you will find yourself gripped the way I was.
Thank God for people like Robert Meyer and those who work with him. It is good to know that there are smart, concerned, diligent, and determined people out there who will help you when you are sick. Some jerks out there have given doctors, nurses, etc a hard time for not being perfect and infallible, for making mistakes, for patients dying. I'd like to see those jerks hiding behind their keyboards go to an ER and do what those ER doctors and nurses do. It's such a demanding and strenuous job! I am so impressed and thankful for them.
Some of the many quotes that stood out to me:
In 1989, NY State limited ER doctors to a maximum of 24 hours per shift and 80 hour workweeks. (OMG working literally twice as much as people with normal easier jobs. When was the last time you were at your job for a solid 24 hours, working?)
He's short of breath, but not too bad. He looks over his shoulder and I hear him say very clearly, "Oh . This is where they take you to die." He starts to say the Our Father, which isn't a surprise:a large number of our patients are deeply religious. What surprises me is that a handful of other sick people join him.
The single day number of covid patient hospital admissions peaked in the Bronx at 1,754 on March 30. On March 8, there were 3 covid patients admitted. (that gives you an idea of what an insane avalanche it was for the ER. It 22 days they went from 3 to 1,754.)
One thing everyone who comes down to the ER from another hospital department has in common is the look on their face when they see the crowding and the suffering for the first time. They are stunned. They all say "I knew it was bad, but I had no idea how bad." And for a moment, they're afraid, and you can see that too. But the next thing they say is: "Show me what I need to do."
"I learned that bravery doesn't mean you are fearless. Bravery is when you are scared and yet you get up and do what you need to do. I try to be brave every day. We've been preparing for this our whole lives. If we don't show up, who's going to take care of all the sick people?" (his boss talking - she had both her elderly parents in the ICU, sick with covid. She kept working even though she was so so worried about her mom & dad)
It's quiet. I let my body descend to the curb. It's not long before the tears begin to flow. There in my scrubs, sitting on the curb, I'm inconsolable. That's when I notice that a UPS driver has pulled up and he gets out of his truck and he sits down next to me. "Look at my truck" he says, pointing toward the open tailgate after I tell him that an ambulance has just driven off with my friend. "I'm finishing my route, and not one of those packages are getting delivered." It turns out that the driver has half a dozen nursing homes on his route. "All these boxes. All those people died alone. There was nobody to say goodbye to them." Then he says "I've got my story and you've got yours. An we both just have to keep going."
We resorted to mass graves. Think about that: mass graves in 21st century America. On Hart Island, where before covid about a dozen bodies were buried each week, more and more workers were needed as the number of interments went up. 50, 80, 100 people were buried every few days, anonymous and alone.
This is a quote Dr Meyer had on his bedroom wall growing up. From Theodore Roosevelt -
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deed could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming.
Meyer is my age - mid fifties - but he is more responsible and smart and focused than I could ever be. Wow, to even choose to be an ER doctor, my heart rate is spiking just thinking about it lol. I thought it interesting to learn that many ER are very athletic and very much extreme sports types. It ties in with their job choice, for sure. That sort of adrenaline junkie who is so naturally laid back that they are less affected by fear and stress; it takes a lot to get them anxious and upset. Meyer is a real "roll with the punches" sort of guy so when the pandemic situation starts stressing him out, you know it's really really bad.
Living in NYC during this time period, I kept thinking about what I was doing and feeling during the time Meyer & his hospital were struggling to treat the wave of sick people flooding the ER. Maybe I was more drawn to the book because I lived through it as well? I mean, obviously not to the extent the overwhelmed hospital workers lived through it. Still, it was a surreal and scary time. The streets were deserted like a zombie movie. Driving through Times Square in the middle of the day and it being totally empty - very creepy! One day out my bedroom window I could see 4 ambulances in front of different apartment buildings, all picking up covid patients. A woman on my block died and it took about 12 hours for the coroner's van to pick up the body, there was such a huge backlog of dead people. Reading about Meyers seeing a line of ambulances as far as the eye could see, waiting to drop people off at the emergency room was very powerful and disturbing. Running out of room in the morgue, the refrigerator trucks for all the extra dead people, having to bury people in mass graves without funerals.....people in other parts of the country did not experience such devastating events.
Getting a bird's eye view of the situation in the ER, where no one was except for staff and the sick(family were not allowed in) fascinated me. No one had ever gone through anything like this. They were having to make it up as they went along. No one knew what was happening, the situation changed by the hour. No one knew how easily it was transmitted. Staff ran out of PPE, out of vital meds, out of beds, out of stretchers, out of body bags....it was a complete shitshow. Yet the staff kept coming to work. They kept trying. They didn't give up. It brought tears to my eyes, how difficult it was for them.
I'm probably convincing people not to read this, it is sounding so heavy. It is a heavy topic, obviously. But the way the book is written, the way it is structured and plotted, it was almost like the book equivalent of an excellent action movie. Very fast paced, very "what is going to happen next?!" vibe. I highly recommend at least trying to read the book. Maybe it will be too soon for you or maybe you will find yourself gripped the way I was.
Thank God for people like Robert Meyer and those who work with him. It is good to know that there are smart, concerned, diligent, and determined people out there who will help you when you are sick. Some jerks out there have given doctors, nurses, etc a hard time for not being perfect and infallible, for making mistakes, for patients dying. I'd like to see those jerks hiding behind their keyboards go to an ER and do what those ER doctors and nurses do. It's such a demanding and strenuous job! I am so impressed and thankful for them.
Some of the many quotes that stood out to me:
In 1989, NY State limited ER doctors to a maximum of 24 hours per shift and 80 hour workweeks. (OMG working literally twice as much as people with normal easier jobs. When was the last time you were at your job for a solid 24 hours, working?)
He's short of breath, but not too bad. He looks over his shoulder and I hear him say very clearly, "Oh . This is where they take you to die." He starts to say the Our Father, which isn't a surprise:a large number of our patients are deeply religious. What surprises me is that a handful of other sick people join him.
The single day number of covid patient hospital admissions peaked in the Bronx at 1,754 on March 30. On March 8, there were 3 covid patients admitted. (that gives you an idea of what an insane avalanche it was for the ER. It 22 days they went from 3 to 1,754.)
One thing everyone who comes down to the ER from another hospital department has in common is the look on their face when they see the crowding and the suffering for the first time. They are stunned. They all say "I knew it was bad, but I had no idea how bad." And for a moment, they're afraid, and you can see that too. But the next thing they say is: "Show me what I need to do."
"I learned that bravery doesn't mean you are fearless. Bravery is when you are scared and yet you get up and do what you need to do. I try to be brave every day. We've been preparing for this our whole lives. If we don't show up, who's going to take care of all the sick people?" (his boss talking - she had both her elderly parents in the ICU, sick with covid. She kept working even though she was so so worried about her mom & dad)
It's quiet. I let my body descend to the curb. It's not long before the tears begin to flow. There in my scrubs, sitting on the curb, I'm inconsolable. That's when I notice that a UPS driver has pulled up and he gets out of his truck and he sits down next to me. "Look at my truck" he says, pointing toward the open tailgate after I tell him that an ambulance has just driven off with my friend. "I'm finishing my route, and not one of those packages are getting delivered." It turns out that the driver has half a dozen nursing homes on his route. "All these boxes. All those people died alone. There was nobody to say goodbye to them." Then he says "I've got my story and you've got yours. An we both just have to keep going."
We resorted to mass graves. Think about that: mass graves in 21st century America. On Hart Island, where before covid about a dozen bodies were buried each week, more and more workers were needed as the number of interments went up. 50, 80, 100 people were buried every few days, anonymous and alone.
This is a quote Dr Meyer had on his bedroom wall growing up. From Theodore Roosevelt -
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deed could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming.
November 27, 2021
This is a heartbreaking look at the early days of COVID in New York City at a hospital that was slammed with cases. It hurts to read yet gives an excellent snapshot of the exhausting impact it had on the frontline workers who put their whole selves into trying to save the patients. The hospital is only one part of the book, however. It’s a snapshot of a year in the life of this ER doctor, written by his cousin, an author. The good doctor is a whole person with a family at home, an aging father, and dear friends who are struck by COVID and cancer. How can he continue to care for his aging father while spending so many hours surrounded by a virus he doesn’t understand? How can he return home to his wife and teenage children without passing the deadly virus to them? How does he care for his dear friend with end stage cancer, the man with biggest heart and love overflowing?
This is a portrait on a man who is a doctor at a hospital in the hardest hit pockets of America in the early days of COVID. Really well written book.
This is a portrait on a man who is a doctor at a hospital in the hardest hit pockets of America in the early days of COVID. Really well written book.
May 10, 2021
This book was incredible and as soon as I started it, I couldn't put it down. Told from the standpoint of an ER doctor in the heart of the Covid surge in the Bronx, we get an insider's look at how the pandemic crisis unfolded in hospitals and the level of gut-wrenching devastation it has left in it's wake. As I read the book, I had a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that this book is non-fiction and happened within the last year. It literally reads like a dystopian, sci-fi novel. Meyer and Koeppel did an amazing job of injecting humanity into something that so many have worked hard to distance themselves from. I have already recommended this book to friends and family as there were too many parts for me to even share with them.
September 21, 2021
I know, I know, I know. People are tired of hearing about Covid but I really wanted to hear from someone different. Someone who actually worked on the front lines, in an area different than my own and I wanted to hear his own words about what he experienced and witnessed with his own eyes. I really enjoyed this book, in fact, the book exceeded my expectations. At first, I hesitated on reading it, afraid it might contain difficult medical jargon but the book was very down-to-earth.
This book centers on Montefiore Health System in Harlem which serves about 1.5 million people annually. With their staff including their medical students, their facilities including their modern equipment, they feel that there’s no better equipped hospital to serve Covid patients than their building. Within one month of receiving their first Covid patient, the hospital gets control of the situation but there’s no end in sight. They were able to manage the shortages that came with the demand of this illness while still providing what they could to their patients and staff. The hospital experienced highs along with the lows while they provided care for their patients, those highs amongst all the chaos and despair provided hope and strength for another day.
There were many references that I enjoyed in this book, remarks that stood out as I read them. The first one referred to how the hospital dealt with the crisis. This state of mind continues today as officials examine the booster vaccine. The doctors learned as they go. They learned about the illness from others, they learned from doing something different, and they learned from going outside-the-box. This illness is new, it’s something our society has not dealt with before. This is a new crisis- there are no set rules, there is no handout to follow, no set procedures in place. We are creating the handout and the rules as the days on the calendar move forward and unfortunately, as people get sick, die, and refused to believe that this illness really exists. The second comment that stuck with me was how the medical staff put everything on hold while they dealt with Covid. How will that effect our future? What will happen if we encounter another untreatable illness? I stop and think about the implications of this time? What has this done to us as a nation and to us around the world? Has this united us or tore us apart? According to a few surveys, our children’s education has suffered. That’s our future. How long will we continue to argue and battle what is “right?”
There was a wake-up moment in Harlem when other colleagues in other areas of the hospital started to offer their help. Months earlier they’ve been too scared to help but now, they see how things are not letting up and they feel the need to pitch in but how? They don’t have the training to work in the ER. The emergency doctors took them, they trained them on something/anything that they thought they could do, they needed another pair of hands, someone to provide some relief. These newly trained ER staff members thought they were scared before, well working on the front lines now, they’re realizing just how bad Covid really is.
I didn’t expect a happy story and I found myself crying a few times while I read this book, the emotional toil and the personal stories hit me. You never knew how things would turn out. An image that stayed with me as I read this book was the person lying in the hospital, just waiting, all alone. Imagine yourself lying there, alone, isolated, no TV or entertainment, all you hear is the constant beeping of the monitors all around you and the noises of the staff as they scramble to assist the others that are lying nearby. How do you feel? Sick, helpless, defeated, worried, deflated…..
It’s a crisis that’s hitting every continent and not everyone is able or willing to stop/control it. You need to be able to live your life, not just survive but live. We need to remember all of those who have died, what we have learned through these individuals, and we need to honor those who have helped us along the way.
It’s a great read and one that I highly recommend. I appreciate the two cousins getting together and sharing this story with us and although, I haven’t witnessed it firsthand, I have heard enough stories from friends and loved ones that I don’t want to nor do I need to, to understand how serious this crisis is. Emergency medicine is constantly changing and you have to remember that no one has all the answers yet. Stay well everyone. 5 stars
This book centers on Montefiore Health System in Harlem which serves about 1.5 million people annually. With their staff including their medical students, their facilities including their modern equipment, they feel that there’s no better equipped hospital to serve Covid patients than their building. Within one month of receiving their first Covid patient, the hospital gets control of the situation but there’s no end in sight. They were able to manage the shortages that came with the demand of this illness while still providing what they could to their patients and staff. The hospital experienced highs along with the lows while they provided care for their patients, those highs amongst all the chaos and despair provided hope and strength for another day.
There were many references that I enjoyed in this book, remarks that stood out as I read them. The first one referred to how the hospital dealt with the crisis. This state of mind continues today as officials examine the booster vaccine. The doctors learned as they go. They learned about the illness from others, they learned from doing something different, and they learned from going outside-the-box. This illness is new, it’s something our society has not dealt with before. This is a new crisis- there are no set rules, there is no handout to follow, no set procedures in place. We are creating the handout and the rules as the days on the calendar move forward and unfortunately, as people get sick, die, and refused to believe that this illness really exists. The second comment that stuck with me was how the medical staff put everything on hold while they dealt with Covid. How will that effect our future? What will happen if we encounter another untreatable illness? I stop and think about the implications of this time? What has this done to us as a nation and to us around the world? Has this united us or tore us apart? According to a few surveys, our children’s education has suffered. That’s our future. How long will we continue to argue and battle what is “right?”
There was a wake-up moment in Harlem when other colleagues in other areas of the hospital started to offer their help. Months earlier they’ve been too scared to help but now, they see how things are not letting up and they feel the need to pitch in but how? They don’t have the training to work in the ER. The emergency doctors took them, they trained them on something/anything that they thought they could do, they needed another pair of hands, someone to provide some relief. These newly trained ER staff members thought they were scared before, well working on the front lines now, they’re realizing just how bad Covid really is.
I didn’t expect a happy story and I found myself crying a few times while I read this book, the emotional toil and the personal stories hit me. You never knew how things would turn out. An image that stayed with me as I read this book was the person lying in the hospital, just waiting, all alone. Imagine yourself lying there, alone, isolated, no TV or entertainment, all you hear is the constant beeping of the monitors all around you and the noises of the staff as they scramble to assist the others that are lying nearby. How do you feel? Sick, helpless, defeated, worried, deflated…..
It’s a crisis that’s hitting every continent and not everyone is able or willing to stop/control it. You need to be able to live your life, not just survive but live. We need to remember all of those who have died, what we have learned through these individuals, and we need to honor those who have helped us along the way.
It’s a great read and one that I highly recommend. I appreciate the two cousins getting together and sharing this story with us and although, I haven’t witnessed it firsthand, I have heard enough stories from friends and loved ones that I don’t want to nor do I need to, to understand how serious this crisis is. Emergency medicine is constantly changing and you have to remember that no one has all the answers yet. Stay well everyone. 5 stars
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