Available:*
Material Type | Library | Call Number | Item Barcode | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Book | Searching... Andover - Memorial Hall Library | 610.92 DAV | 31330007381274 | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
A riveting personal exploration of the healthcare crisis facing inner-city communities, written by an emergency room physician who grew up in the very neighborhood he is now serving
Sampson Davis is best known as one of three friends from inner-city Newark who made a pact in high school to become doctors. Their book The Pact and their work through the Three Doctors Foundation have inspired countless young men and women to strive for goals they otherwise would not have dreamed they could attain. In this book, Dr. 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 presents an urgent picture of medical care in our cities. It 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.
Praise for Living and Dying in Brick City
"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
"Gripping . . . a prescription to help kids dream bigger than their circumstances, from someone who really knows." -- People
"[Dr. Davis] is really a local hero. His story has inspired so many of our young people, and he's got his finger on the pulse of what is a challenge in Newark, and frankly all across America. . . . I think his book is going to make a big impact." --Cory Booker
"Some memoirs are heartfelt, some are informative and some are even important. Few, however, are all three. . . . As rare as it is for a book to be heartfelt, well written and inspirational, it's even rarer for a critic to say that a book should be required reading. This ought to be included in high school curricula--for the kids in the suburbs who have no idea what life is like in the inner cities, and for the kids in the inner cities to know that there is a way out."-- The Star-Ledger
"Dramatic and powerful."-- New York Daily News
"This book just might save your life. Sampson Davis shares fascinating stories from the E.R. and addresses the inner-city health crisis. His book is an important investment in your most valuable resource: your health." --Suze Orman, author of The Money Class
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Davis (co-author of The Pact: Three Young Men Make a Promise and Fulfill a Dream) is clearly of, from, and for the Brick City-Newark, NJ-and in his previous book and work with his Three Doctors Foundation he made himself an inspiration to the kind of inner-city youth he was. Now writing about the urban African-American experience on the scale of Newark and the United States simultaneously, it is unclear whom Davis envisions as his audience. Identically-structured chapters feature a short patient story, a teaching point or moral, major issues in health and health care for African Americans, and concise public health information from government agencies. Though formulaic, patients are not made tokens, and medical information-dealing with topics ranging from gang violence to depression to obesity- is woven throughout. The most fully developed character, however, is Davis himself; he details his childhood, family, and life with both his own child and "adopted" children he has mentored in the community. Davis closes by discussing his leave from clinical medicine for full-time community and advocacy work, reflecting on how it's all part of the same vocation: to "help save lives". (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
An emergency-room doctor relates his experiences to the wider emergency of inadequate health care for inner-city residents in places like Newark, N.J., where he grew up and practiced medicine. In two earlier books (The Bond: Three Young Men Learn to Forgive and Reconnect with their Fathers, 2007, etc.), Davis and two boyhood friends described their experiences growing up on the Newark streets--how, despite the odds, they overcame the violence and chaos of life in a ghetto environment and became medical practitioners. Here, Davis describes the serious health conditions of patients he treated in the emergency room who lacked any other medical care, a "too-often overlooked population." Most poignant are the descriptions of his meetings with former street companions as they were wheeled into the emergency room, the victims of gunshot wounds, drug overdoses and the like. Most frustrating were the patients who faked ailments to legally acquire drugs for recreational purposes. The author cites the shocking statistic that in the U.S., deaths from overdoses of prescription painkillers exceed those from heroin and cocaine combined. Davis also faced high incidences of sexually transmitted diseases among black women, in his opinion spread because of unprotected sex. Tragically, his older sister, who had inspired him to become a doctor, died of AIDS. At the age of 27 (after his first year as a resident), Davis received an award for community service from Essence magazine. A page-turning wake-up call.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Davis an African American who grew up in a tough neighborhood in Newark, aka Brick City, beat the odds, and became an emergency room doctor in the hospital where he was born is a likable but flawed hero. And his book is a page-turner as he and Washington Post writer and editor Page, coauthor of the best-selling memoir The Pact (2002) with Davis and his best childhood friends, create memorable scenes. To compellingly tell the story of the health crisis in poor, urban America, they draw on Davis' experiences in the emergency room and in his own family. His dad gets prostate cancer, his older sister contracts AIDS, and his older, alcoholic brother becomes paralyzed because of a fight. Davis describes trying and failing to help such emergency-room patients as a victim of domestic violence and a 700-pound woman. He tries to figure out whether sickle-cell-anemia patients who come into the ER complaining of pain truly need prescription medication or if they're just looking for an easy fix. A personal and thought-provoking look at inner-city health.--Springen, Karen Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Davis (The Pact: Three Young Men Make a Promise and Fulfill a Dream) has written a medical memoir with a message. Born and raised in Newark, NJ, he watched his friends turn to lives of crime and drugs. He chose to stay in school. After finishing his medical degree and residency in emergency medicine, he returned to Newark to work at a hospital in his old neighborhood. Davis was troubled to see the effects of crime and poverty on the health and lives of Newark's residents, involving some he knew from childhood. This book is his response to that distress and a call to action to address the social and health issues that impact the inner city. Each chapter is devoted to a particular problem-domestic violence, drug abuse, asthma, gangs-and often concludes with a list of warning signs and advice and/or resources for those afflicted. VERDICT Written for the lay reader, this book will also be of interest to health-care professionals and anyone concerned about the effect of poverty and crime on the health of those who live in our inner cities.-Rachel Owens, Daytona State Coll. Lib., FL (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| Introduction | p. 3 |
| 1 Brothers | p. 7 |
| 2 Hidden in Plain Sight | p. 25 |
| 3 Brick City | p. 43 |
| 4 Love Hurts | p. 53 |
| 5 Dying for Love | p. 75 |
| 6 Baby Love | p. 95 |
| 7 Clubbing | p. 117 |
| 8 The Fear Factor | p. 133 |
| 9 The Fish Bowl | p. 150 |
| 10 Russian Roulette | p. 161 |
| 11 No Air | p. 172 |
| 12 Killing us Softly | p. 183 |
| 13 Reaching Out | p. 195 |
| 14 Unexpected Twists | p. 206 |
| Afterword | p. 227 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 233 |
| Bibliography | p. 239 |