Something for the Pain
Compassion and Burnout in the ER
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4.3 • 84 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
"A stunning account of the chaos of the emergency room" (Boston Globe) for fans of The Pitt or anyone interested in the inner workings of today's healthcare system.
“At this time of the morning—two, three, four o’clock—lonely people seek solace in the fluorescent light of the emergency room. If you’ve been to a twenty-four-hour grocery store late at night, you may have seen the same people. They hesitate, put a can of soup back on the shelf, then take it down again and put it back in the cart. Refugees from the daylight world, they move with the timidity of those whose lives don’t mesh with others’. Night is the time when the lucky people get to sleep. But toothaches throb more in the dark, and backaches become unbearable. People in pain abandon their restless beds and flee their empty kitchens. They go out into the night, in search of comfort.”
These are the words of Paul Austin, as he introduces the reader to the men and women—eccentric and well-adjusted, drunk and sober—who make up a day’s work in the ER. From describing the process of issuing a death certificate for a man who shot himself in the head to attending a child in trauma from a car accident, to finding the cause of an elderly man’s fever, Austin paints a vivid picture of life in the ER and its effects on an ER doctor.
In his eye-opening account, Austin recalls how the daily grind of long, erratic shifts and endless lines of patients with sad stories sends him down a path of bitterness and cynicism. His own life becomes Exhibit A, as he details the emotional detachment that estranges him from himself and his family. Gritty, powerful, and ultimately redemptive, Austin’s memoir is a revealing glimpse into the fragility of compassion and sanity in the industrial setting of today’s hospitals.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Austin follows up Something for the Pain, his memoir of becoming an ER doctor, with an eloquent account of his experiences raising a child with Down syndrome. It begins in 1987 when he, a third-year resident, and his wife, Sally, a labor and delivery room nurse, receive the news that their newborn daughter, Sarah, has the congenital condition. As Austin watches his wife breast-feed Sarah, and later slips a flower behind his daughter's ear as she sleeps in his arms, his love for her is unmistakable. He segues seamlessly between scenes of family life and disquisitions on the history and science of Down syndrome, arguing that we are defined by more than our genes. Though Austin doesn't sugarcoat the challenges he faced, he also shows Sarah as an engaging, sociable child who loved movies, dancing, and drawing. While following her development from birth to age 22, readers also witness Austin's transformation from a father who once had to "pretend" to be proud, to a man in genuine awe of Sarah's many gifts. Parents of special-needs kids will find this story particularly inspiring, and its universal message of love and acceptance should speak to a much wider audience.
Customer Reviews
Good read
Learned some medical info.
ER Doc drama
Great fast read on the making of an efficient and compassionate ERDoc.
Relatable and honest
I read this book as a PT student about to go into clinical rotations. While I will most likely never see the intensity of situations as seen by Dr. Austin it was great to hear a professional echo all the emotions, fears, and doubts I have preparing to give real live human beings medical care. He does an excellent job in this book of bringing you into the moment of being face to face with his patients and feeling all the emotions that present themselves in a environment such a the ER. I highly recommend this book for any student pursuing a medical career or anyone in general who appreciates a peak behind the curtain at a perspective that view outside of a medical career get to see.