In Notes from the ER: Essays on the Human Experience, emergency physicians Thomas Burke and Joe Pellicer capture the brisk tempo of the ER environment in a series of succinct, honest medical vignettes about their work. In these essays they describe the split-second decisions and unexpected epiphanies that define and emerge from their work.

Every day, emergency physicians catch brief, often startling glimpses into the lives of total strangers. Although they rarely know the background and aftermath of a patient's state of crisis, they often bear witness to an intense, pivotal moment in his or her life. The rapid pace of their workplace--and the extreme undulations between lives lost and saved there--also shape their unique perspective.

Burke and Pellicer offer wide-ranging insights, from the universal relief and embarrassment that arise from "wasting a doctor's time" for a condition that disappears when a patient arrives at the hospital - to Burke's experiences as a doctor for the FBI Hostage Rescue Team during the incidents at Waco, Texas, and Ruby Ridge, Idaho.