
Life on the Line
Young Doctors Come of Age in a Pandemic
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Narrated by:
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Sandy Rustin
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By:
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Emma Goldberg
About this listen
The gripping account of six young doctors enlisted to fight COVID-19, an engrossing, eye-opening book in the tradition of both Sheri Fink’s Five Days at Memorial and Scott Turow’s One L.
In March 2020, soon-to-graduate medical students in New York City were nervously awaiting “match day” when they would learn where they would begin their residencies. Only a week later, these young physicians learned that they would be sent to the front lines of the desperate battle to save lives as the coronavirus plunged the city into crisis.
Taking the Hippocratic Oath via Zoom, these new doctors were sent into iconic New York hospitals including Bellevue and Montefiore, the epicenters of the epicenter. In this powerful book, New York Times journalist Emma Goldberg offers an up-close portrait of six bright yet inexperienced health professionals, each of whom defies a stereotype about who gets to don a doctor’s white coat. Goldberg illuminates how the pandemic redefines what it means for them to undergo this trial by fire as caregivers, colleagues, classmates, friends, romantic partners, and concerned family members.
Woven together from in-depth interviews with the doctors, their notes, and Goldberg’s own extensive reporting, this pause-resisting narrative is an unforgettable depiction of a crisis unfolding in real time and a timeless and unique chronicle of the rite of passage of young doctors.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2021 Emma Goldberg (P)2021 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
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What listeners say about Life on the Line
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Anne
- 01-06-25
The personal connection between the patients and the doctors stood out the most.
I had recently retired from being a registered nurse (RN) before covid-19 hit. I struggled to understand why politics kept this important news out of mainstream as the cases multiplied rapidly.
I had worked as a RN for 36 years and when I retired, I missed learning about diseases. I no longer had institutional access to peer-reviewed medical journals.
I read and listened to everything I could about covid-19, yet i knew i was only scratching the surface.
Life On The Line gave me a much more intimate view of what was happening with these young doctors as they began their careers as physicians during the pandemic.
The book filled in a lot of blanks for me I had wondered about. As I finished the book,, I appreciated all of the hundreds of hours the author, Emma Goldberg poured into studying and learning about the human emotions of this disease process.
All of the people who worked during the pandemic deserve so much more accolades than they will ever receive. The patients and family members will forever hold you in their hearts.
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- sign of the raven
- 03-23-25
Not what I'd expected
As the tagline says, this was supposed to be stories about new doctors whose first experience was during the height of the pandemic. Unfortunately, more than half the book was political and social commentary. There was a strong emphasis on discrimination against minorities. All of the doctors came from minority groups. However, I saw no evidence presented that these individuals were discriminated against. I would have much preferred more case studies illustrating the challenges added to these new doctors because of the pandemic.
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- Joan
- 07-04-21
Front-Line Non-Fiction
As a retired RN I cannot impress the importance of understanding the various concepts covered in this book so people can start to formalize the importance for why year 2021 medical care is delivered as it is and the need to have written DNR/DNI orders completed.
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- Maggie Gorman
- 02-05-23
Interesting
Very interesting story. Enjoyed following each person and found the history included to be interesting as well.
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- Jody
- 08-27-24
Should be titled “Diatribe about gender and race”
Should be titled, “Diatribe about gender and race”
The expectation of a book about doctors during covid is that there are a lot of stories and info about covid, yet 1/3 or 1/2 of the book is a lecture about race and gender.
The author, who is not a doctor or in the medical field, goes on and on that one of the reasons that people are so sick is because of white control. She says the medical community is racist and often makes choices to deliberately hurt people of color.
She says the reason that people are so sick has nothing to do with personal responsibility, but because of normalized systemic racism in the medical industry and that racism is purposeful and systemic.
Early in the book she says that PTSD and trauma that gay men experience in NYC are the same as families of holocaust survivors due to the number of friends they lost in the AIDS epidemic. And don’t worry, she got “police brutality” in there as well.
She talked about the lack of ventilators early on in the pandemic and blamed it on corporations, never once mentioning that government allowed this stockpile to be low.
There were a few interesting stories within the ranting. Manny and the many people who tried to help him was one of those. More of those stories would have made this book significantly better.
If you are a looking for a book with a few covid stories and a lot of ranting and lecturing about gender and race, this book is for you.
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