Reviews of Saving Grace

ePub February in Anesthesiology, the official journal of the American Society of Anesthesiologist:

“… harrowing stories that are both moving and well told … There is something here for everyone… told in elegant and vivid language that does not require a medical education to understand, yet in sufficient detail that any practicing anesthesiologist will have no trouble finding themselves in the pages. A highly recommended read for teachers, students, patients, and physicians alike.”

Reviews of Saving Grace

Infodad.com focused review:

“Bring[s] readers behind the curtain of mystery where so much of the enormous complexity of modern medicine is concealed…Compulsively readable and consistently revelatory. It is the behind-the-scenes information on modern medicine and the place of anesthesiology within it that makes Saving Grace such an impressive achievement.”

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Praise for Saving Grace

“A touchingly human book, Saving Grace invites us to follow Dr. David Alfery as he grows from naive medical student to caring senior physician and anesthesiologist. Along the way, when patient encounters end tragically, Dr. Alfery struggles with life's fragility. As he becomes increasingly aware that all lives do end, he becomes increasingly committed to making each day matter. If that sounds cliche, it isn't as presented in the gentle prose and striking storytelling that enliven this profoundly affecting book.”
—Theresa Brown RN, author of the New York Times bestseller The Shift: One Nurse, Twelve Hours, Four Patients’ Lives (Algonquin Books, 2016)

“Saving Grace is transformational.  Beautifully written, Dr. Alfery’s perspective on life, death, and beyond will change the way you live each day.”
—Paul Ruggieri MD, author of Confessions of a Surgeon: The Good, The Bad, The complicated … Life Beyond the OR Doors (Berkley, 2012)

“There are many memoirs written by doctors - this is certainly one of the most notable.”
—Henry Marsh MD, author of the New York Times bestseller Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery (Thomas Dunne Books, 2015) and the National Book Critics Circle finalist, Admissions: Life as a Brain Surgeon (Thomas Dunne Books, 2017)

“Dr Alfery’s highly readable casebook and memorable clinical memoir amounts to The Anesthesiologist’s Tale of the terror of conducting an obstructed intubation; the grief of the OR staff as a patient dies unexpectedly on the operating table; and the routine need to manage uncertainty and a host of perils as the anesthesiologist fiercely focuses on the crucial control of the surgical patient’s physiological responses to blood loss, cardiac arrest and organ failure. Nothing will so clarify the thin pink line between life and the cold greyness of death and shake readers into sensible health maintenance as reading how anesthesiologists routinely struggle to balance physiology and control untoward responses to surgical interventions. A highly accessible clinical memoir!  Also, an illumination of how a caring clinician not just thinks of death and dying, but acts to keep patients alive or to help them find an adequate passing. “
—Arthur Kleinman MD, author of the New York Times bestseller The Soul of Care: The Moral Education of a Patient and a Doctor (Penguin Books, 2019)

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