I have just finished reading this wonderful book. It is a story of a doctor discovering what lies beyond the science of medicine - so personal and so powerful - something one calls upon when science fails to heal. It is something that every doctor has to face and to acknowledge sometime during his or her career to be able to keep on going.
It is a combination of life experiences and reflection over the meaning of each of them. It is a personal journey that every doctor has to encounter to understanding what it takes to become not just M.D. but a healer.
If you have a friend who is considering making medicine a life long career, please give him or her this book to read. It will give them a good idea of what they are getting themselves into but, most importantly, it will help them to see that there is something else hidden beyond the power of science and once they discover what it is, they will be able to survive any hardship of this profession.

From The Palm Beach Post

Dr. Bonadio's book wheels us down the polished white linoleum hospital floors and leaves us in the florescent theater of life in the pediatric ER. From this stage he delivers ten piercing chapters on lives saved, on lives lost. Because children are the subject, it is hard not to close this book without a shudder, or a sigh, hard not to feel the deep luck of a simple day lived in good health. The ER setting serves as a crucible for Bonadio's clean prose and clear thoughts. His sentences are terse, sometimes truncated, pared down to their simplest elements. Bonadio handles the stethoscope and pen with equal finesse. Julias Mother is an astonishing achievement. His thoughts and chapters swing open like emergency room doors. All of Bonadio's stories captivate, from a pregnant teen's suicide attempt to a parent trying to deal with the grief of their drowned boy being futilely resuscitated. Bonadio clearly leaves the reader to understand there is more to medicine than pathologists labeling pickled parts. Inside the tissue and bone, is a soul. It is the doctor's job to help the souls stay in their delicate vessels-Spencer Reece, The Palm Beach Post, FL, copyright May 2000

An amazing collection of stories from a children's emergency room. Bonadio allows reader to see not only the gripping details of events but also his feelings about his patients and his work. Doctors are not often this forthcoming. I was especially taken with his awarness of the impression he was giving to anxious parents with his body language and facial expression as he worked over their stricken baby, deeply moved by his search for words to tell Julia's mother that her child had died.

I read this as part of a research project, but wholeheartedly believe that this book would be fascinating to any reader. Bonadio's skill as a writer is phenomenal. I hope he writes other books, even novels, in the future. My guess is that he will.

This is the book to read if you want to recapture your faith inthe medical profession. Dr. Bonadio's compassion for his patients isextremely moving; at several points in the narrative, I found myself on the brink of tears (all right, so I sobbed! who could help it?). Of particular interest to me was the chapter on the autopsies and how Dr. Bonadio learned respect for the human body and for the force of death. I also found the story of how he decided to become a doctor--through his father's own feelings of failure at being "just a janitor"--a very touching tale. It went a long way to explain how this physician has maintained a sense of selflessness. I felt privileged to read about his quest to find meaning in seemingly senseless and traumatic events, such as the death of Julia. Read it (hopefully before your next scary visit to the emergency room) and find inspiration.