Review: Life & Death Decisions, by Dr Lachlan McIver

Blurb
An action-packed tale of medicine in the most remote, poverty-torn areas of the globe from a Médecins Sans Frontières doctor. Set to appeal to fans of War Doctor.

Lachlan was sixteen when he found his father dead on the side of a dirt road in North Queensland, Australia. He had suffered a sudden heart attack and died alone. It was this tragedy that motivated Lachlan to train as a doctor specialising in providing medical care for people living in remote, resource-deprived locations.
Lachlan’s work with the World Health Organization and Medecins Sans Frontieres has taken him to some of the world’s most extreme environments from the sinking islands of the Pacific to epidemics and war zones in the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa.

In this no-holds-barred memoir, Lachlan recounts his experiences treating patients ravaged by tropical diseases, managing war wounds with drug-resistant infections, delivering babies by the light of a head torch, dealing with the devastating effects of climate change and narrowly avoiding being kidnapped by militia in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Tackling such impossible problems day in and day out inevitably takes a personal toll. Lachlan is ultimately forced to face his own battles with depression, alcohol abuse and bankruptcy.

Life and Death Decisions is a deeply human look at the personal cost of our broken global health system and a vital call to action.

My Review

Thanks to Anne Cater for organising this blog tour and to the publisher for my copy of this book.

I’ve read a few medical memoirs in recent years, they seem to be in fashion, and I do find them interesting, so when I was offered the chance to review this book I leapt at it. Metaphorically, anyway. I don’t move fast enough to leap literally, also my glasses broke on Saturday so they’d fall off if I tried leaping anywhere. I’ve read books from NHS anaesthetists, prison doctors, criminal psychologists, and, GPs wrangling with their internalised fatphobia, all UK based, so an Australian doctor specialising in rural medicine who has lived and travelled all over the world was something different.

I was not disappointed. McIver writes fluently about his life and adventures, the interesting places he’s been and the wonderful, and not so wonderful, people he’s met. In the process he educates the reader about the complex threat of climate change and the situation in usually ignored island nations of the Pacific.

This memoir is a passionate and timely reminder that we are in a bit of a mess. A mess we have caused. McIver has clearly led an interesting life, dedicated to his profession and to seeking solutions to that mess. It is also a deeply moving account of mental illness and learning to balance the demands of the world with the inner needs of all humans, the need for love, safety and purpose.