The Fatal Breath

Download or read book The Fatal Breath written by David Vincent and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2023-09-11 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Fatal Breath is the first full-scale history of the Covid-19 pandemic in Britain. Deploying a rich archive of personal testimonies together with a wide range of research reports and official data, it presents a moving and challenging account of the crisis that enveloped Britain (and the world) in the spring of 2020. With sensitivity, care, and an historian’s critical eye, David Vincent places the pandemic in context. While much contemporary commentary has assumed people were forced to develop entirely new ways of living and working during lockdown, Vincent reveals how the population was able to draw upon a wealth of resources and coping strategies already seen over the centuries, often reacting far more quickly and effectively than slow-moving authorities. He tells the stories of doctors’ and nurses’ time on the frontlines, reveals the true extent of supply shortages, conspiracy theories, and vaccine resistance, and explores individuals’ newfound appreciation of nature and community in lockdown. The Fatal Breath will appeal to anyone seeking to reflect on the past few years and how the pandemic has changed Britain – for better and for worse.

Download or read book When Breath Becomes Air written by Paul Kalanithi and published by Random House. This book was released on 2016-02-04 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: **THE MILLION COPY BESTSELLER** 'Rattling. Heartbreaking. Beautiful,' Atul Gawande, bestselling author of Being Mortal What makes life worth living in the face of death? At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade's training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, the next he was a patient struggling to live. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi's transformation from a medical student asking what makes a virtuous and meaningful life into a neurosurgeon working in the core of human identity - the brain - and finally into a patient and a new father. Paul Kalanithi died while working on this profoundly moving book, yet his words live on as a guide to us all. When Breath Becomes Air is a life-affirming reflection on facing our mortality and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a gifted writer who became both. 'A vital book about dying. Awe-inspiring and exquisite. Obligatory reading for the living' Nigella Lawson

Download or read book Last Breath written by Peter Stark and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2002-02-05 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sudden, extreme deaths have always fascinated us-- and now more than ever as athletes and travelers rise to the challenges of high-risk sports and journeys on the edge. In this spellbinding book, veteran travel and outdoor sports writer Peter Stark reenacts the dramas of what happens inside our bodies, our minds, and our souls when we push ourselves to the absolute limits of human endurance. Combining the adrenaline high of extreme sports with the startling facts of physiological reality, Stark narrates a series of outdoor adventure stories in which thrill can cross the line to mortal peril. Each death or brush with death is at once a suspense story, a cautionary tale, and a medical thriller. Stark describes in unforgettable detail exactly what goes through the mind of a cross-country skier as his body temperature plummets-- apathy at ninety-one degrees, stupor at ninety. He puts us inside the body of a doomed kayaker tumbling helplessly underwater for two minutes, five minutes, ten minutes. He conjures up the physiology of a snowboarder frantically trying not to panic as he consumes the tiny pocket of air trapped around his face under thousands of pounds of snow. These are among the dire situations that Stark transforms into harrowing accounts of how our bodies react to trauma, how reflexes and instinct compel us to fight back, and how, why, and when we let go of our will to live. In an increasingly tamed and homogenized world, risk is not only a means of escape but a path to spirituality. As Peter Stark writes, "You must try to understand death intimately and prepare yourself for death in order to live a full and satisfying life." In this fascinating, informative book, Stark reveals exactly what we’re getting ourselves into when we choose to live-- and die-- at the extremes of endurance.

Download or read book Breath written by Tim Winton and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2008-05-27 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Falling under the spell of an enigmatic extreme-sports surfer, a thrill-seeking pair of western Australian adolescents is initiated into a world of high-stakes adventures and dangerous boundary testing.

Download or read book Her Last Breath written by Dan Padavona and published by . This book was released on 2020-12-07 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: He's hunting a psychopath. And now the killer wants him dead.After he's shot in the line of duty, Detective Thomas Shepherd returns to Wolf Lake to pick up the pieces of his shattered life. Living beside the water, he finds peace...until the body of a missing woman washes up on his shore and the town blames a teenage boy with a history of violence. Is a killer stalking the sleepy resort village?Thomas isn't convinced the teenager committed murder. Challenging a village that wants justice at any cost, he pursues the real killer as evidence mounts against the teenager. If he fails, an innocent boy will go to prison.Can Thomas clear the boy's name before he becomes the killer's next victim? Praise for Dan Padavona: "I was actually turning pages on my Kindle so fast, I thought I would burn it out." - Amazon Review"One of the most exciting writers to burst upon the scene in quite some time." - Brian Keene, Bram Stoker Award-Winning Author"Characters that you can care about. Read this in one sitting. Scary as hell. Locked my doors even." - Amazon Review"Dan builds tension like few others can. His prose is rich and his characters are memorable. I dare you to read a Padavona story with the lights out." - Zach Bohannon, author of the Empty Bodies series"Read the complete series. Absolutely awesome author." - Amazon ReviewIndie Thriller Novel of the Year Finalist

Download or read book Caesar's Last Breath written by Sam Kean and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2017-07-18 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Guardian's Best Science Book of 2017: the fascinating science and history of the air we breathe. It's invisible. It's ever-present. Without it, you would die in minutes. And it has an epic story to tell. In Caesar's Last Breath, New York Times bestselling author Sam Kean takes us on a journey through the periodic table, around the globe, and across time to tell the story of the air we breathe, which, it turns out, is also the story of earth and our existence on it. With every breath, you literally inhale the history of the world. On the ides of March, 44 BC, Julius Caesar died of stab wounds on the Senate floor, but the story of his last breath is still unfolding; in fact, you're probably inhaling some of it now. Of the sextillions of molecules entering or leaving your lungs at this moment, some might well bear traces of Cleopatra's perfumes, German mustard gas, particles exhaled by dinosaurs or emitted by atomic bombs, even remnants of stardust from the universe's creation. Tracing the origins and ingredients of our atmosphere, Kean reveals how the alchemy of air reshaped our continents, steered human progress, powered revolutions, and continues to influence everything we do. Along the way, we'll swim with radioactive pigs, witness the most important chemical reactions humans have discovered, and join the crowd at the Moulin Rouge for some of the crudest performance art of all time. Lively, witty, and filled with the astounding science of ordinary life, Caesar's Last Breath illuminates the science stories swirling around us every second.

Download or read book TILL THE LAST BREATH written by Durjoy Datta and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2013-09-15 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When death is that close, will your heart skip a beat? Two patients are admitted to room no. 509. One is a brilliant nineteen-year-old medical student, suffering from an incurable, fatal disease. She counts every extra breath as a blessing. The other is a twenty-five-year-old drug addict whose organs are slowly giving up. He can’t wait to get rid of his body. To him, the sooner the better. Two reputed doctors, fighting their own demons from the past, are trying everything to keep these two patients alive, even putting their medical licences at risk. These last days in the hospital change the two patients, their doctors and all the other people around them in ways they had never imagined. Till the Last Breath is a deeply sensitive story that reminds us what it means to be alive.