Reviews - The Emergency: A Year of Healing and Heartbreak in a Chicago ER

You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.

129 reviews for:

The Emergency: A Year of Healing and Heartbreak in a Chicago ER

Thomas Fisher

4.01 AVERAGE

hen518468's review against another edition

4.25

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

i feel like the author couldn’t decide what they wanted this book to be about. the topic kept switching between the COVID-19 pandemic and racial segregation in healthcare. these are 2 very important topics, but it was really confusing to follow the narrative when the central theme kept changing. furthermore, the content spans much longer than “the year” mentioned in the title.

i don’t usually rate memoirs as it feels wrong to essentially rate someone’s life or experience, but this memoir just felt really disjointed.

eman1223's review against another edition

4.0

informative reflective fast-paced

shannahtan's review

5.0

emotional reflective medium-paced

I liked the writing style and how the chapters alternated between letters to patients and people and the months leading up to covid then the summer and fall of covid. It wasn’t surprising to hear accounts of what it’s like in the emergency department, and the discrepancy between hospitals in rich vs. poor areas. Black vs. white areas. But, it was still truly heartbreaking to read. The part where

the guy dies from a pulmonary embolism reminds me of my friend whose mom recently died. She’s so upset about her mom’s experience in the hospital, which sounds truly awful. At the same time, I had so much sympathy for the doctors who I know were just doing their best.

I really relates to the part where he talks about seeing so much death that he feels like he can no longer cry. He talks about pins and needles in his brain. I’ve been feeling this way & the description really hit.

Content Warnings

enbybooklove's review against another edition

3.75

informative reflective medium-paced

Mostly I didn’t like the style. It was somehow patronizing and a bit narcissistic. Maybe if I hadn’t read anything on the subject before? The part I did find really interesting was the section on when they were “unintentionally” going to segregate the ER by race. That was truly frightening.