Fragile
Beauty in Chaos, Grace in Tragedy, and the Hope That Lives in Between
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Narrated by:
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Shannon Sovndal
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By:
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Shannon Sovndal
About this listen
Life is fragile.
When Shannon Sovndal started medical school, he was confident and motivated and felt invincible. He thought he was going in with his eyes wide open. Really, he had no clue. Nothing could prepare him for the harsh reality of being a compassionate human and working as an ER doctor.
In his emotionally charged memoir, Sovndal examines the tenuous balance between trying to compartmentalize the trauma of tragedy while also preserving his own humanity. With candor and humility, Fragile pulls back the curtain on the ER, a place where Sovndal has learned that universal truths about the human condition can be discovered...if you pause long enough to take a breath.
At turns heartbreaking and heartwarming, serious and funny, Sovndal’s memoir is about trying to reconcile the beautiful and horrific tension that makes life so fragile, and how accepting that hard truth opens us up to appreciate life’s most precious moments - which are often the ones most filled with connection, hope, and love.
©2020 Shannon Sovndal (P)2020 Shannon SovndalListeners also enjoyed...
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- A Memoir of a Female Heart Surgeon
- By: Kathy Magliato
- Narrated by: Renée Raudman
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Dr. Kathy Magliato is one of fewer than a dozen female heart surgeons practicing in the world today. She is also a member of an even more exclusive group - those surgeons who perform heart transplants. Healing Hearts is the story of the making of a surgeon who also calls herself a wife and mother.
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Healing Hearts
- By Jean on 01-14-12
By: Kathy Magliato
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The Last Post
- By: Renée Carlino
- Narrated by: Avery Caris, Stephen Dexter
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Laya Marston’s husband, Cameron, a daredevil enthusiast, was the complete opposite of her, ready and willing to dive off a cliff-face or parachute across a canyon - and Laya loved him for it. But she was different: pragmatic, regimented, devoted to her career and to supporting Cameron from the sidelines of his death-defying feats. Opposites attract, right? But when Cameron dies tragically, Laya becomes lost in denial, living in the delusion that Cameron will come back to her.
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I really wanted to like this
- By Amazon Customer on 12-21-21
By: Renée Carlino
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True Grit and Grace
- Turning Tragedy into Triumph
- By: Amberly Lago
- Narrated by: Amberly Lago
- Length: 4 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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True Grit and Grace tells the story of a woman's life forever altered by a horrific motorcycle accident that shattered her right leg. Despite the initial recommendation to amputate, she endured 34 surgeries to save it. However, as a sexual-abuse and divorce survivor, she determined to save not only her leg, but her career, her dreams, and her dignity.
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Amazing!!
- By Аmazon Customer on 08-06-23
By: Amberly Lago
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Don't Leave Me This Way
- Or When I Get Back on My Feet You'll Be Sorry
- By: Julia Fox Garrison
- Narrated by: Joyce Bean
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Julia Fox Garrison refused to listen to the professionals she called Dr. Jerk and Dr. Panic, who - after she suffered a massive, debilitating stroke at age thirty-seven - told her she’d probably die, or to Nurse Doom, who ignored her emergency call button. Instead she heeded the advice of kind, gifted Dr. Neuro, who promised her he would “treat your mind as well as your body.” Julia figured if she could somehow manage to get herself into a wheelchair, at least she’d always find parking. But after many, many months of hospitalization and rehab, Julia not only got into a wheelchair, but she got back out.
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Heroic Story
- By Pamela Harvey on 02-29-12
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Last Night in the OR
- A Transplant Surgeon's Odyssey
- By: Bud Shaw
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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The 1980s marked a revolution in the field of organ transplants, and Bud Shaw, MD, who studied under Tom Starzl in Pittsburgh, was on the front lines. Now retired from active practice, Dr. Shaw relays gripping moments of anguish and elation, frustration and reward, despair and hope in his struggle to save patients. He reveals harshly intimate moments of his medical career.
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Expect alot of bad language!
- By Lynn L. on 08-10-16
By: Bud Shaw
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Weekends at Bellevue
- By: Julie Holland MD
- Narrated by: Julie Holland MD
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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His name was Joshua Silver. He was 23 years old, educated, and had an impressive vocabulary. The NYPD had found Joshua Silver naked in Times Square, barking like a dog. It was just another night for Julie Holland, the attending doctor in the world famous Bellevue Hospital's psychiatric emergency room.
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An Uneven Memoir
- By A. M. Dalessandro on 09-24-10
By: Julie Holland MD
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The Keep
- The Adversary Cycle, Book 1
- By: F. Paul Wilson
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 15 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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"Something is murdering my men." Thus reads the message received from a Nazi commander stationed in a small castle high in the remote Transylvanian Alps. Invisible and silent, the enemy selects one victim per night, leaving the bloodless and mutilated corpses behind to terrify its future victims. When an elite SS extermination squad is dispatched to solve the problem, the men find something that's both powerful and terrifying. Panicked, the Nazis bring in a local expert on folklore - who just happens to be Jewish - to shed some light on the mysterious happenings.
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At long last, The classic horror novel on Audible
- By Shieldslinger on 07-22-20
By: F. Paul Wilson
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The Rescuer
- One Firefighter’s Story of Courage, Darkness, and the Relentless Love That Saved Him
- By: Jason Sautel, D.R. Jacobsen - contributor
- Narrated by: Mark Smeby
- Length: 5 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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He helped save people every day - but he had no idea how to save himself. Jason Sautel had it all. Confident in his abilities and trusted by his fellow firefighters, he was making a name for himself on the streets of Oakland, California. His adrenaline-fueled job even helped him forget the pain of his childhood - until the day he looked into the eyes of a jumper on the Bay Bridge and came face-to-face with a darkness he knew would take him down as well.
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Real..... and good!
- By Anonymous User on 03-07-21
By: Jason Sautel, and others
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Hope Unseen
- The Story of the U.S. Army's First Blind Active-Duty Officer
- By: Scotty Smiley, Doug Crandall
- Narrated by: Dan John Miller
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Blindness became Captain Scotty Smiley’s journey of supreme testing. As he lay helpless in the hospital, he resented the theft of his dreams, but with his wife’s love and the support of family and friends, Scotty’s response became God’s transforming moment. Since the moment he forced his way through nurses and cords to take a simple shower, he has climbed Mount Rainier, won an ESPY Award, surfed, skydived, become a father, earned an MBA from Duke, and much more.
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Perseverance with a little help
- By Kevin P Key on 07-09-16
By: Scotty Smiley, and others
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An Alaskan Christmas
- Wild River, Book 1
- By: Jennifer Snow
- Narrated by: Melissa Moran
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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If there’s one gift Erika Sheraton does not want for Christmas, it’s a vacation. Ordered to take time off, the workaholic surgeon reluctantly trades in her scrubs for a ski suit and heads to Wild River, Alaska. Her friend Cassie owns a tour company that offers adventures to fit every visitor. But nothing compares to the adrenaline rush Erika feels on being reunited with Cassie’s brother, Reed Reynolds.
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Rated X
- By Barb on 01-02-21
By: Jennifer Snow
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My Glory Was I Had Such Friends
- A Memoir
- By: Amy Silverstein
- Narrated by: Erin Moon
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Nearly 26 years after receiving her first heart transplant, Amy Silverstein's donor heart plummeted into failure. If she wanted to live, she had to take on the grueling quest for a new heart - immediately. A shot at survival meant uprooting her life and moving across the country to California. When her friends heard of her plans, there was only one reaction: "I'm there." Nine remarkable women - Joy, Jill, Leja, Jody, Lauren, Robin, Valerie, Ann, and Jane - put demanding jobs and pressing family obligations on hold to fly across the country and be by Amy's side.
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Great listen!
- By Natalie on 05-13-23
By: Amy Silverstein
What listeners say about Fragile
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 02-05-23
Finally!
As a retired RN, and someone who was also an EMT-P, this is a book that really put words to so many of my own experiences, thoughts and feelings.
I love reading about the roads travelled by others in their journey through medicine, but this is by far the most honest and real. Thanks!
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- Andres
- 08-28-23
Awesome book
It is a great book that grabs you from the beginning and takes you through the story as if you were witnessing the events in the moment. I'll recommend it to all my friends!
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- Iron Duke
- 03-06-21
My Life
A story of the author’s personal life and pastimes. Very little about patients or being a doctor. Mildly interesting but not exceptional.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Cinnamon
- 12-19-20
Excellent
Loved the book. Dr. Sovndal uses excellent real life experiences not just as an ER doctor but from his personal life. I highly recommend this book.
Dr. Sovndal thank you for being on the Frontline now during COVID-19.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Ruth P.
- 02-28-21
Fascinating look into what it means to be an emergency medicine doctor
Sovndal shares his personal experiences in an engaging and vulnerable way. And in his own voice you can hear and feel the emotions.
Those who choose this way to serve others can seem aloof in person but hearing this story the humanity shines through.
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- Lois Smith
- 02-07-22
I was mesmerized by this book
First, I'm a big fan of books read by the author...it seems more personable. This book was so raw and real and riveting. It's the kind of book that makes me want to dive right in again, and I probably will. The author claims writing is not his gift, but I beg to differ. Another reviewer was right...it's a lot more than accounts of ER crises and difficult cases. Five stars
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- hussein
- 05-20-21
anyone can come up with a book like this
only 2 or 3 stories about medicine. the rest is a boring autobiography of an ordinary life. big waste of a credit
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2 people found this helpful