The Desperate Hours
One Hospital's Fight to Save a City on the Pandemic's Front Lines
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $24.74
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Kirsten Potter
-
By:
-
Marie Brenner
About this listen
A remarkable depiction of a city in crisis—based on new, behind-the-scenes reporting—that captures the resilience, peril, and compassion of the early days of the COVID pandemic
In the spring of 2020, COVID-19 arrived in New York City.
Before long, America’s largest metropolis was at war against a virus that mercilessly swept through its five boroughs. It became apparent that if COVID wasn’t somehow halted, the death count in New York alone would be in the hundreds of thousands. And if New York’s hospitals failed, what chance did the rest of the country have?
In The Desperate Hours, award-winning journalist Marie Brenner, having been granted unprecedented 18-month access to the entire New York-Presbyterian hospital system, tells the story of the doctors, nurses, residents, researchers, and suppliers who tried to save lives across Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn and the northern periphery of the city. Drawing on more than 200 interviews, Brenner takes us inside secure ICU units, sealed operating rooms, locked executive suites, unknown basement workshops, and makeshift clinics to provide extraordinary witness to the war as it was waged on the front line.
But The Desperate Hours is more than a thrilling account of medicine under extreme pressure. It is an intimate portrait of courageous men and women coming together in their devotion to duty, their families, each other, and the city they loved more than any other.
A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books.
©2022 Marie Brenner (P)2022 Macmillan AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
Enough
- By: Cassidy Hutchinson
- Narrated by: Cassidy Hutchinson
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ever since a childhood visit to Washington, DC, Cassidy Hutchinson aspired to serve her country in government. Raised in a working-class family with a military background, she was the first in her immediate family to graduate from college. Despite having no ties to Washington, Hutchinson landed a vital position at the center of the Trump White House.
-
-
Painful
- By Melissa C. on 09-28-23
-
Prequel
- An American Fight Against Fascism
- By: Rachel Maddow
- Narrated by: Rachel Maddow
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inspired by her research for the hit podcast Ultra, Rachel Maddow charts the rise of a wild American strain of authoritarianism that has been alive on the far-right edge of our politics for the better part of a century. Before and even after our troops had begun fighting abroad in World War II, a clandestine network flooded the country with disinformation aimed at sapping the strength of the U.S. war effort and persuading Americans that our natural alliance was with the Axis, not against it.
-
-
The fight to keep democracy alive
- By Rex on 10-19-23
By: Rachel Maddow
-
Thank You for Your Servitude
- Donald Trump's Washington and the Price of Submission
- By: Mark Leibovich
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller This Town, the eyewitness account of how the GOP collaborated with Donald Trump to transform Washington’s “swamp” into a gold-plated hot tub—and a onetime party of rugged individualists into a sycophantic personality cult.
-
-
ALL the Stars!!!!!
- By Iread on 07-28-22
By: Mark Leibovich
-
The Divider
- Trump in the White House, 2017-2021
- By: Peter Baker, Susan Glasser
- Narrated by: Michael Quinlan
- Length: 28 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The inside story of the four years when Donald Trump went to war with Washington, from the chaotic beginning to the violent finale, told by revered journalists Peter Baker of The New York Times and Susan Glasser of The New Yorker—an ambitious and lasting history of the full Trump presidency that also contains dozens of exclusive scoops and stories from behind the scenes in the White House, from the absurd to the deadly serious.
-
-
An expertly guided tour through history.
- By Cocoabelle on 09-24-22
By: Peter Baker, and others
-
Any Given Tuesday
- A Political Love Story
- By: Lis Smith
- Narrated by: Jean Ann Douglass
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lis Smith isn’t your average political strategist and Any Given Tuesday isn’t your typical political memoir. At once a revealing look at human nature at the highest levels of power and an intimate portrayal of a sometimes rocky personal journey, it breaks all the rules. Smith doesn’t pretend to be perfect—she owns the controversial choices that landed her in the tabloids, as well as the unorthodox ones that have paid off and defined her successful career.
-
-
Very good but nits to pick
- By Ruth O'Sullivan on 07-26-22
By: Lis Smith
-
Confidence Man
- The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America
- By: Maggie Haberman
- Narrated by: Maggie Haberman
- Length: 17 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Few journalists working today have covered Donald Trump more extensively than Maggie Haberman. And few understand him and his motivations better. Now, demonstrating her majestic command of this story, Haberman reveals in full the depth of her understanding of the 45th president himself, and of what the Trump phenomenon means.
-
-
This is the only one you have to read
- By Amazon Customer on 10-06-22
By: Maggie Haberman
-
Enough
- By: Cassidy Hutchinson
- Narrated by: Cassidy Hutchinson
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ever since a childhood visit to Washington, DC, Cassidy Hutchinson aspired to serve her country in government. Raised in a working-class family with a military background, she was the first in her immediate family to graduate from college. Despite having no ties to Washington, Hutchinson landed a vital position at the center of the Trump White House.
-
-
Painful
- By Melissa C. on 09-28-23
-
Prequel
- An American Fight Against Fascism
- By: Rachel Maddow
- Narrated by: Rachel Maddow
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inspired by her research for the hit podcast Ultra, Rachel Maddow charts the rise of a wild American strain of authoritarianism that has been alive on the far-right edge of our politics for the better part of a century. Before and even after our troops had begun fighting abroad in World War II, a clandestine network flooded the country with disinformation aimed at sapping the strength of the U.S. war effort and persuading Americans that our natural alliance was with the Axis, not against it.
-
-
The fight to keep democracy alive
- By Rex on 10-19-23
By: Rachel Maddow
-
Thank You for Your Servitude
- Donald Trump's Washington and the Price of Submission
- By: Mark Leibovich
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller This Town, the eyewitness account of how the GOP collaborated with Donald Trump to transform Washington’s “swamp” into a gold-plated hot tub—and a onetime party of rugged individualists into a sycophantic personality cult.
-
-
ALL the Stars!!!!!
- By Iread on 07-28-22
By: Mark Leibovich
-
The Divider
- Trump in the White House, 2017-2021
- By: Peter Baker, Susan Glasser
- Narrated by: Michael Quinlan
- Length: 28 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The inside story of the four years when Donald Trump went to war with Washington, from the chaotic beginning to the violent finale, told by revered journalists Peter Baker of The New York Times and Susan Glasser of The New Yorker—an ambitious and lasting history of the full Trump presidency that also contains dozens of exclusive scoops and stories from behind the scenes in the White House, from the absurd to the deadly serious.
-
-
An expertly guided tour through history.
- By Cocoabelle on 09-24-22
By: Peter Baker, and others
-
Any Given Tuesday
- A Political Love Story
- By: Lis Smith
- Narrated by: Jean Ann Douglass
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lis Smith isn’t your average political strategist and Any Given Tuesday isn’t your typical political memoir. At once a revealing look at human nature at the highest levels of power and an intimate portrayal of a sometimes rocky personal journey, it breaks all the rules. Smith doesn’t pretend to be perfect—she owns the controversial choices that landed her in the tabloids, as well as the unorthodox ones that have paid off and defined her successful career.
-
-
Very good but nits to pick
- By Ruth O'Sullivan on 07-26-22
By: Lis Smith
-
Confidence Man
- The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America
- By: Maggie Haberman
- Narrated by: Maggie Haberman
- Length: 17 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Few journalists working today have covered Donald Trump more extensively than Maggie Haberman. And few understand him and his motivations better. Now, demonstrating her majestic command of this story, Haberman reveals in full the depth of her understanding of the 45th president himself, and of what the Trump phenomenon means.
-
-
This is the only one you have to read
- By Amazon Customer on 10-06-22
By: Maggie Haberman
-
Five Days at Memorial
- Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital
- By: Sheri Fink
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 17 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After Hurricane Katrina struck and power failed, amid rising floodwaters and heat, exhausted staff at Memorial Medical Center designated certain patients last for rescue. Months later, a doctor and two nurses were arrested and accused of injecting some of those patients with life-ending drugs.
-
-
Five Days in Hell/Years in Purgatory
- By Cynthia on 09-15-13
By: Sheri Fink
-
Rough Draft
- A Memoir
- By: Katy Tur
- Narrated by: Katy Tur
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a box from her mother showed up on Katy Tur’s doorstep, months into the pandemic and just as she learned she was pregnant with her second child, she didn’t know what to expect. The box contained thousands of hours of video—the work of her pioneering helicopter journalist parents. They grew rich and famous for their aerial coverage of Madonna and Sean Penn’s secret wedding, the Reginald Denny beating in the 1992 Los Angeles riots, and O.J. Simpson’s notorious run in the white Bronco.
-
-
I loved Katie’s first book “Unbelievable”, this is even better!
- By GB on 06-16-22
By: Katy Tur
-
Blood on Their Hands
- Murder, Corruption, and the Fall of the Murdaugh Dynasty
- By: Mandy Matney
- Narrated by: Mandy Matney
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Years before the name Alex Murdaugh was splashed across every major media outlet in America, local South Carolina journalist Mandy Matney had an instinct that something wasn’t right in the Lowcountry. The powerful Murdaugh dynasty had dominated rural South Carolina for generations. No one dared to cross them.
-
-
Disappointed and Very frustrating
- By Annie on 11-21-23
By: Mandy Matney
-
Cabin Fever
- The Harrowing Journey of a Cruise Ship at the Dawn of a Pandemic
- By: Michael Smith, Jonathan Franklin
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In early 2020, the world was on edge. An ominous virus was spreading on different continents, and no one knew what the coming weeks would bring. Far from the hot spots, the cruise ship Zaandam, owned by Holland America, was preparing to sail from Buenos Aires, Argentina, loaded with 1,200 passengers—Americans, Europeans and South Americans, plus 600 crew. Within days, people aboard begin to fall sick. With only two doctors aboard and few medical supplies to test for or treat COVID-19, and with dwindling food and water, the ship wanders the oceans on an unthinkable journey.
-
-
really really great story telling
- By Amazon Buyer on 06-28-22
By: Michael Smith, and others
-
Charity
- The Heroic and Heartbreaking Story of Charity Hospital in Hurricane Katrina
- By: Jim Carrier
- Narrated by: Jim Carrier
- Length: 2 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
First went the power. Then came the water, and for five days, the country’s oldest hospital was under siege. The never-before-told story of the heroic doctors, nurses, and patients who fought to survive Hurricane Katrina at Charity Hospital in New Orleans. The story traces a remarkable five-day transformation of an infirm institution, caught in a sea of death and indifference, into an island of care and tenderness.
-
-
Chapter 8 repeats
- By Elizabeth on 11-02-24
By: Jim Carrier
-
Why We Did It
- A Travelogue from the Republican Road to Hell
- By: Tim Miller
- Narrated by: Josh Bloomberg
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As one of the strategists behind the famous 2012 RNC “autopsy,” Miller conducts his own forensic study on the pungent carcass of the party he used to love, cutting into all the hubris, ambition, idiocy, desperation, and self-deception for everyone to see. In a bracingly honest reflection on both his own past work for the Republican Party and the contortions of his former peers in the GOP establishment, Miller draws a straight line between the actions of the 2000s GOP to the Republican political class's Trumpian takeover, including the horrors of January 6th.
-
-
No, Tim!
- By Lori Renard on 06-30-22
By: Tim Miller
-
Star Trek: Discovery: Desperate Hours
- By: David Mack
- Narrated by: Susan Eisenberg
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Aboard the Starship Shenzhou, Lieutenant Michael Burnham, a human woman raised and educated among Vulcans, is promoted to acting first officer. But if she wants to keep the job, she must prove to Captain Philippa Georgiou that she deserves to have it.
-
-
Could Have Been Great
- By Rick on 11-13-17
By: David Mack
-
And There Was Light
- Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle
- By: Jon Meacham
- Narrated by: Jon Meacham
- Length: 17 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hated and hailed, excoriated and revered, Abraham Lincoln was at the pinnacle of American power when secessionists gave no quarter in a clash of visions bound up with money, race, identity, and faith. In him we can see the possibilities of the presidency as well as its limitations. This book tells the story of Lincoln from his birth on the Kentucky frontier to his leadership during the Civil War to his tragic assassination: his rise, his self-education, his loves, his bouts of depression, his political failures, his deepening faith, and his persistent conviction that slavery must end.
-
-
A Winner
- By Diane Moore on 10-31-22
By: Jon Meacham
-
Riding the Lightning
- A Year in the Life of a New York City Paramedic
- By: Anthony Almojera
- Narrated by: Anthony Almojera
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a seasoned paramedic and union leader, Anthony Almojera thought he could handle anything his job threw at him. Like many medical first responders, he came from a troubled background and carried the traumas of the city as well as its triumphs. He had grown up in the rough-and-tumble Park Slope of the 1980s, been homeless for a time, and had watched murder, addiction, and hopelessness consume those closest to him. But he had dedicated his life to helping people in need, and while every day was filled with tragedy—stabbings, shootings, accidents, suicides—it also brought moments of uplift.
-
-
Honest, brutal and compassionate.
- By Adam on 06-08-22
By: Anthony Almojera
-
The Big Lie
- Election Chaos, Political Opportunism, and the State of American Politics After 2020
- By: Jonathan Lemire
- Narrated by: Jonathan Lemire
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the more than five tumultuous, paradigm-shifting years of Donald Trump’s presidency and beyond, his near-constant lying has become a fixture of political life. It is inextricably linked with how his party behaves, how the Democrats respond to it, and how he remains relevant, even after a decisive loss in 2020. Jonathan Lemire brings his connections, profile, and reportorial instincts to bear in his first book that explores how this phenomenon shapes our politics. The Big Lie is the first audiobook to examine this unprecedented and tenuous moment in our nation’s politics.
-
-
Don’t bother
- By Susan S. on 07-27-22
By: Jonathan Lemire
-
Being Mortal
- Medicine and What Matters in the End
- By: Atul Gawande
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Being Mortal, best-selling author Atul Gawande tackles the hardest challenge of his profession: how medicine can not only improve life but also the process of its ending. Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming birth, injury, and infectious disease from harrowing to manageable. But in the inevitable condition of aging and death, the goals of medicine seem too frequently to run counter to the interest of the human spirit.
-
-
A Walk through the Valley of the Shadow
- By George on 11-02-14
By: Atul Gawande
-
Holding the Line
- Inside the Nation's Preeminent US Attorney's Office and Its Battle with the Trump Justice Department
- By: Geoffrey Berman
- Narrated by: Geoffrey Berman
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ascending to the leadership role of US Attorney for the Southern District, which includes Manhattan and several counties to the north, is a capstone to any legal career: it entails guiding a team of the best lawyers in America in selecting and winning cases that often have global import. Geoffrey Berman was honored to be tapped for the job by Donald Trump in 2018. The manner in which Trump had dispatched his predecessor Preet Bharara was troubling, but the institution was fabled for its independence. Surely he could manage.
-
-
Excellent Story of SDNY JD during Trump Years
- By WLC on 09-14-22
By: Geoffrey Berman
Related to this topic
-
Five Days at Memorial
- Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital
- By: Sheri Fink
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 17 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After Hurricane Katrina struck and power failed, amid rising floodwaters and heat, exhausted staff at Memorial Medical Center designated certain patients last for rescue. Months later, a doctor and two nurses were arrested and accused of injecting some of those patients with life-ending drugs.
-
-
Five Days in Hell/Years in Purgatory
- By Cynthia on 09-15-13
By: Sheri Fink
-
Inferno
- A Doctor's Ebola Story
- By: Steven Hatch MD
- Narrated by: Steven Hatch MD
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dr. Steven Hatch first came to Liberia in November 2013 to work at a hospital in Monrovia. Six months later, several of the physicians Dr. Hatch had mentored and served with were dead or barely clinging to life, and Ebola had become a world health emergency. Hundreds of victims perished each week; whole families were destroyed in a matter of days; so many died so quickly that the culturally taboo practice of cremation had to be instituted to dispose of the bodies.
-
-
Good story, spoiled by politics.
- By Roman Vogel on 07-22-17
By: Steven Hatch MD
-
Changing the Way We Die
- Compassionate End-of-Life Care and the Hospice Movement
- By: Sheila Himmel, Fran Smith
- Narrated by: Coleen Marlo
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There’s a quiet revolution happening in the way we die. More than 1.5 million Americans a year die in hospice care - nearly 44 percent of all deaths - and a vast industry has sprung up to meet the growing demand. Once viewed as a New Age indulgence, hospice is now a $14 billion business and one of the most successful segments in health care. Changing the Way We Die, by award-winning journalists Fran Smith and Sheila Himmel, is the first book to take a broad, penetrating look at the hospice landscape.
-
-
Sadly, not very engaging.
- By Debra S. Long on 06-16-18
By: Sheila Himmel, and others
-
Doctored
- The Disillusionment of an American Physician
- By: Sandeep Jauhar
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hoping for the stability he needs to start a family, Sandeep Jauhar, an attending cardiologist, accepts a position at a massive teaching hospital on the outskirts of Queens. With a decade's worth of elite medical training behind him, he is eager to settle down and reap the rewards of countless sleepless nights. Instead, he is confronted with sobering truths. Doctors' morale is low and getting lower.
-
-
Frank, inside perspective on the follies of unintended consequences in medical reform
- By JW on 02-25-18
By: Sandeep Jauhar
-
How to Survive a Plague
- The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS
- By: David France
- Narrated by: Rory O'Malley
- Length: 24 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A riveting, powerful telling of the story of the grassroots movement of activists, many of them in a life-or-death struggle, who seized upon scientific research to help develop the drugs that turned HIV from a mostly fatal infection to a manageable disease. Ignored by public officials, religious leaders, and the nation at large, and confronted with shame and hatred, this small group of men and women chose to fight for their right to live by educating themselves and demanding to become full partners in the race for effective treatments.
-
-
Read This Book!
- By Kay M Hawklee on 05-30-17
By: David France
-
Beating Back the Devil
- By: Maryn McKenna
- Narrated by: Ellen Archer
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The universal instinct is to run from an outbreak of disease. These doctors run toward it. They always keep a bag packed. They seldom have more than 24 hours before they are dispatched. They are told only their country of destination and the epidemic they will tackle when they get there.
-
-
Interesting Stuff - Only criticism is pacing
- By Tim on 07-23-05
By: Maryn McKenna
-
Five Days at Memorial
- Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital
- By: Sheri Fink
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 17 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After Hurricane Katrina struck and power failed, amid rising floodwaters and heat, exhausted staff at Memorial Medical Center designated certain patients last for rescue. Months later, a doctor and two nurses were arrested and accused of injecting some of those patients with life-ending drugs.
-
-
Five Days in Hell/Years in Purgatory
- By Cynthia on 09-15-13
By: Sheri Fink
-
Inferno
- A Doctor's Ebola Story
- By: Steven Hatch MD
- Narrated by: Steven Hatch MD
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dr. Steven Hatch first came to Liberia in November 2013 to work at a hospital in Monrovia. Six months later, several of the physicians Dr. Hatch had mentored and served with were dead or barely clinging to life, and Ebola had become a world health emergency. Hundreds of victims perished each week; whole families were destroyed in a matter of days; so many died so quickly that the culturally taboo practice of cremation had to be instituted to dispose of the bodies.
-
-
Good story, spoiled by politics.
- By Roman Vogel on 07-22-17
By: Steven Hatch MD
-
Changing the Way We Die
- Compassionate End-of-Life Care and the Hospice Movement
- By: Sheila Himmel, Fran Smith
- Narrated by: Coleen Marlo
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There’s a quiet revolution happening in the way we die. More than 1.5 million Americans a year die in hospice care - nearly 44 percent of all deaths - and a vast industry has sprung up to meet the growing demand. Once viewed as a New Age indulgence, hospice is now a $14 billion business and one of the most successful segments in health care. Changing the Way We Die, by award-winning journalists Fran Smith and Sheila Himmel, is the first book to take a broad, penetrating look at the hospice landscape.
-
-
Sadly, not very engaging.
- By Debra S. Long on 06-16-18
By: Sheila Himmel, and others
-
Doctored
- The Disillusionment of an American Physician
- By: Sandeep Jauhar
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hoping for the stability he needs to start a family, Sandeep Jauhar, an attending cardiologist, accepts a position at a massive teaching hospital on the outskirts of Queens. With a decade's worth of elite medical training behind him, he is eager to settle down and reap the rewards of countless sleepless nights. Instead, he is confronted with sobering truths. Doctors' morale is low and getting lower.
-
-
Frank, inside perspective on the follies of unintended consequences in medical reform
- By JW on 02-25-18
By: Sandeep Jauhar
-
How to Survive a Plague
- The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS
- By: David France
- Narrated by: Rory O'Malley
- Length: 24 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A riveting, powerful telling of the story of the grassroots movement of activists, many of them in a life-or-death struggle, who seized upon scientific research to help develop the drugs that turned HIV from a mostly fatal infection to a manageable disease. Ignored by public officials, religious leaders, and the nation at large, and confronted with shame and hatred, this small group of men and women chose to fight for their right to live by educating themselves and demanding to become full partners in the race for effective treatments.
-
-
Read This Book!
- By Kay M Hawklee on 05-30-17
By: David France
-
Beating Back the Devil
- By: Maryn McKenna
- Narrated by: Ellen Archer
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The universal instinct is to run from an outbreak of disease. These doctors run toward it. They always keep a bag packed. They seldom have more than 24 hours before they are dispatched. They are told only their country of destination and the epidemic they will tackle when they get there.
-
-
Interesting Stuff - Only criticism is pacing
- By Tim on 07-23-05
By: Maryn McKenna
-
Your Heart, My Hands
- An Immigrant's Remarkable Journey to Become One of America's Preeminent Cardiac Surgeons
- By: Arun K. Singh MD, John Hanc - contributor, Delos Cosgrove MD - foreword
- Narrated by: Shridhar Solanki
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Leaving a life marked by crippling setbacks and his father's doubt, in 1967 a 20-something doctor from India arrived in America with only five dollars and the desire to claim his American dream. Faced with an entirely new culture, racism, and the lasting effects of disabling childhood injuries, through hard work and perseverance he overcame all odds. Now having performed over 15,000 open-heart surgeries, more than nearly every surgeon in history, Dr. Singh reflects on his most memorable patients and his incredible personal life.
-
-
Remarkable!
- By Stacey on 12-01-22
By: Arun K. Singh MD, and others
-
A Bittersweet Season
- Caring for Our Aging Parents - And Ourselves
- By: Jane Gross
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 15 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In telling the intimate story of caring for her aged and ailing mother, Jane Gross offers indispensable, and often surprising, advice for the rapidly increasing number of adult children responsible for aging parents. Gross deftly weaves the specifics of her personal experience with a comprehensive resource for effectively managing the lives of one's own parents while keeping sanity and strength intact.
-
-
Exceptional, thought-provoking, liberating!
- By Anne on 08-10-11
By: Jane Gross
-
One Doctor
- Close Calls, Cold Cases, and the Mysteries of Medicine
- By: Brendan Reilly
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 15 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An epic story told by a unique voice in American medicine, One Doctor describes life-changing experiences in the career of a distinguished physician. In riveting first-person prose, Dr. Brendan Reilly takes us to the front lines of medicine today.
-
-
Simply Brilliant
- By Jan on 06-20-14
By: Brendan Reilly
-
Paradise Falls
- The True Story of an Environmental Catastrophe
- By: Keith O'Brien
- Narrated by: Eileen Stevens
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lois Gibbs, Luella Kenny, and other mothers loved their neighborhood on the east side of Niagara Falls. It had an elementary school, a playground, and rows of affordable homes. In the spring of 1977, pungent odors began to seep into these little houses, and it didn’t take long for worried mothers to identify the curious scent. It was the sickly-sweet smell of chemicals.
-
-
Incredible work of everyday people
- By J. C. Edens on 11-20-24
By: Keith O'Brien
-
Promise Me, Dad
- A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose
- By: Joe Biden
- Narrated by: Joe Biden
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In November 2014, 13 members of the Biden family gathered on Nantucket for Thanksgiving, a tradition they had been celebrating for the past 40 years; it was the one constant in what had become a hectic, scrutinized, and overscheduled life. The Thanksgiving holiday was a much-needed respite, a time to connect, a time to reflect on what the year had brought, and what the future might hold. But this year felt different from all those that had come before.
-
-
A Sad Memoir
- By Jean on 12-02-17
By: Joe Biden
-
Splendid Solution
- Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio
- By: Jeffrey Kluger
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Salk became a cultural hero and icon for a whole generation. Now, at the fiftieth anniversary of the first national vaccination program, and as humanity is tantalizingly close to eradicating polio worldwide, comes this unforgettable chronicle. Salk's work was an unparalleled achievement, and it makes for a magnificent listen.
-
-
Excellent book
- By Tim on 08-10-06
By: Jeffrey Kluger
-
Critical Care
- A New Nurse Faces Death, Life, and Everything in Between
- By: Theresa Brown
- Narrated by: Coleen Marlo
- Length: 5 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In her former career as an English professor, Theresa Brown had been shielded from the harsh reality of death. That all changed the day she decided to become an oncology nurse. In Critical Care, Theresa writes powerfully and honestly about her first year on the hospital floor. With great compassion and a disarming sense of humor, she shares the trials and triumphs of her patients and comes to realize that caring for a patient means much more than simply treating a disease.
-
-
Excellent all the way around!
- By Susan on 10-12-17
By: Theresa Brown
-
Unaccountable
- What Hospitals Won't Tell You and How Transparency Can Revolutionize Health Care
- By: Marty Makary
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dr. Marty Makary is co-developer of the life-saving checklist outlined in Atul Gawande's best-selling The Checklist Manifesto. As a busy surgeon who has worked in many of the best hospitals in the nation, he can testify to the amazing power of modern medicine to cure. But he's also been a witness to a medical culture that routinely leaves surgical sponges inside patients, amputates the wrong limbs, and overdoses children because of sloppy handwriting. Over the last 10 years, neither error rates nor costs have come down, despite scientific progress.
-
-
Everyone should read this book.
- By Julie on 06-11-16
By: Marty Makary
-
Polio
- An American Story
- By: David M. Oshinsky
- Narrated by: Jonathan Hogan
- Length: 14 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This comprehensive and gripping narrative, which received the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for history, covers all the challenges, characters, and controversies in America's relentless struggle against polio. Funded by philanthropy and grassroots contributions, Salk's killed-virus vaccine (1954) and Sabin's live-virus vaccine (1961) began to eradicate this dreaded disease.
-
-
Wonderful
- By Patricia B Tripoli on 07-22-08
-
Truth Doesn't Have a Side
- My Alarming Discovery About the Danger of Contact Sports
- By: Dr. Bennet Omalu, Mark Tabb, Will Smith - foreword
- Narrated by: Ron Butler
- Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One day in 2002 the 50-year old body of former Pittsburgh Steeler and hall of famer Mike Webster was laid on a cold table in front of pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu. Webster's body looked to Omalu like the body of a much older man, and the circumstances of his behavior prior to his death were clouded in mystery. But when Omalu cut into Webster's brain, it appeared to be normal. Something didn't add up.
-
-
Truly Enlightening
- By Marie on 01-31-20
By: Dr. Bennet Omalu, and others
-
Confessions of a Surgeon
- The Good, the Bad, and the Complicated...Life Behind the O.R. Doors
- By: Paul A. Ruggieri MD
- Narrated by: Eric Martin
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As an active surgeon and former department chairman, Dr. Paul A. Ruggieri has seen the good, the bad, and the ugly of his profession. In Confessions of a Surgeon, he pushes open the doors of the OR and reveals the inscrutable place where lives are improved, saved, and sometimes lost. He shares the successes, failures, remarkable advances, and camaraderie that make it exciting.
-
-
Enjoyed the anecdotes!
- By suzanne on 07-31-17
-
Haiti After the Earthquake
- By: Paul Farmer
- Narrated by: Meryl Streep, Edoardo Ballerini, Edwidge Danticat
- Length: 14 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On January 12, 2010, a major earthquake struck near Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Hundreds of thousands of people died, and the greater part of the capital was demolished. Dr. Paul Farmer, U.N. deputy special envoy to Haiti, who had worked in the country for nearly thirty years treating infectious diseases like tuberculosis and AIDS, and former President Bill Clinton, the U.N. special envoy to Haiti, had just begun to work on an extensive development plan to improve living conditions in Haiti.
-
-
If you read one book about Haiti make it this one
- By Bryan on 06-07-12
By: Paul Farmer
What listeners say about The Desperate Hours
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Benjamin Ferguson
- 03-17-23
Excellent
Everyone should listen to this book to know what happened and what could happen again if we don’t value Public Health.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Seashell
- 11-02-22
Great story.
excellent look into the behind the scenes of the pandemic. too many names though. couldn't keep track of who was who.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Zeta
- 07-14-22
Riveting account of COVID surge at NY “best” hospital
I could not stop listening to this vivid and thoughtful account. Highly recommend this book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Skcrichton
- 04-02-24
Absolutely riveting tale
Think you don’t want to think about the early days of Covid? Think again! Wow! Amazing reporting, amazing characters, amazing book!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Josh
- 07-18-22
Way too much politics
The author disliked Donald Trump; as do I, to an extent. It was clear from the initial chapters. I thought the book was very engaging and well-written, then came the last chapters. I didn't really see the need to include George Floyd in the narrative. I don't see how his murder really influenced COVID-19 at all. I think the writer's political biases ruined a potentially great book.
I'm looking forward to future non-fiction books on the COVID-19 outbreak. This was a weak attempt at assigning blame.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful