Shocking, heartbreaking, sometimes poignantly funny — always supremely human — here is the inside story of what really goes on in a hospital emergency room. [Randall Sword](/authors/OL1234141A/Randall_Sword), a dedicated yet outspoken young doctor, gives us the moment-by-moment detail, the life and death situations, the comedy and the tragedy that make up a typical day or night in ER. True-life cases range from a young man’s bleeding to death from a mysterious mouth wound while Dr. Sword works feverishly to save him to an elderly woman who has swallowed her dentures and a little boy who dropped a toilet seat on his penis. Each hour brings something different — accident and rape victims, criminals, heart attacks, drug overdoses, the elderly looking for a bit of cheer. We watch Dr. Sword and his team save lives — and sometimes lose them. We share their desperate moments, along with ludicrous and downright comic episodes. We learn what it’s like to be an ER doctor — emotionally, physically, and financially— and how Emergency Medicine has evolved from a catch-as-catch-can situation to a highly respected and important specialty. Writing in clear, fast-moving prose that matches the pace of an emergency room, Dr. Sword takes time to raise important questions about medicine. Frankly and courageously, he discusses his frustration with doctors who would rather play golf than care for indigent patients; he assails a malpractice system that seems to inspire corruption; and he considers whether and in what circumstances patients should be kept alive. *Emergency Room* is a book that no reader will soon forget.