Living and Dying in Brick City: Stories from the Front Lines of an Inner-City E.R. - Paperback

by Sampson Davis (Author), Lisa Frazier Page (Author)

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.

Author Biography

Sampson Davis was born and raised in Newark, New Jersey. He is a board certified emergency medicine physician and author of the New York Times bestsellers The Pact, We Beat the Street, and The Bond. He is the youngest physician to receive the National Medical Association's highest honor, the Scroll of Merit. He is a recipient of Essence and BET humanitarian awards and was named by Essence as one of the forty most inspirational African Americans. He is a founder of the Three Doctors Foundation and practices medicine in New Jersey.