**An urgent picture of medical care in our cities, written by an
emergency room physician (and co-author of the New York Times
bestseller The Pact) who grew up in the very neighborhood he is now
serving
**
"A pull-no-punches look at health care from a seldom-heard sector . .
. Living and Dying isn't a sky-is-falling chronicle. It's a real,
gutsy view of a city hospital."--Essence
In this book, Dr. Sampson Davis looks at the healthcare crisis in the
inner city from a rare perspective: as a doctor who works on the front
line of emergency medical care in the community where he grew up, and as
a member of that community who has faced the same challenges as the
people he treats every day. He also offers invaluable practical advice
for those living in such communities, where conditions like asthma,
heart disease, stroke, obesity, and AIDS are disproportionately endemic.
Dr. Davis's sister, a drug addict, died of AIDS; his brother is now
paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair as a result of a bar fight; and
he himself did time in juvenile detention--a wake-up call that changed
his life. He recounts recognizing a young man who is brought to the E.R.
with critical gunshot wounds as someone who was arrested with him when
he was a teenager during a robbery gone bad; describes a patient whose
case of sickle-cell anemia rouses an ethical dilemma; and explains the
difficulty he has convincing his landlord and friend, an older woman, to
go to the hospital for much-needed treatment. With empathy and
hard-earned wisdom, Living and Dying in Brick City is an important
resource guide for anyone at risk, anyone close to those at risk, and
anyone who cares about the fate of our cities.
