We have some of your holiday reading covered with a competition. One lucky reader stands a chance to win a copy of Saving a Stranger’s Life – The Diary of an Emergency Room Doctor by Anne Biccard.
Anne Biccard has worked as an emergency doctor in Johannesburg for more than 30 years.
It is a job that is both terrifying and thrilling, where death can be outwitted by skill and quick thinking, and the pressure eased by dark humour.
The coronavirus, however, has added another dimension of fear.
In this heartwarming and at times hilarious memoir she recounts some of the cases that have burst in through her doors, such as the woman who mistook her Dettol for beer and the man who tried to run down his cardiologist.
There is sadness, too, as she remembers the patients who didn’t make it.
Above all, she writes of the camaraderie and dogged determination of health workers holding fast in the face of the Covid-19 nightmare as they battle, every day, to save a stranger’s life.
“A rare and intimate insight into the thoughts and experiences of an ED doctor and her responses to the idiosyncratic cast of characters that she meets. A deeply ironic, humorous and yet compassionate and informative book. A must read,” says Professor Gillian Straker, clinical professor at the University of Sydney and co-author of The Talking Cure.
About the author
Dr Anne Biccard is a medical doctor who lives and works in Johannesburg. She studied psychology and then medicine at the University of the Witwatersrand. She lives with her partner on a small farm where they provide a home to rescued greyhounds (and some other creatures).
How to enter
All you have to do to stand a chance to win a copy of Saving a Stranger’s Life – The Diary of an Emergency Room Doctor is send an email to cvdwalt@caxton.co.za with the subject box Book competition – Stranger and your contact details in the body of the email.
Winners will be chosen by means of a lucky draw and no correspondence will be entered into once winners have been chosen.
The competition closes on December 9 at 12 noon.
