Life and Death Decisions: Fighting to save lives from disaster, disease and destruction

Life and Death Decisions is a memoir by Lachlan Macdonald, a doctor who has worked with the World Health Organization and Médecins Sans Frontières in some of the world's most extreme environments. It recounts his experiences treating patients, managing war wounds, delivering babies, and dealing with the effects of climate change. It is a deeply human look at the personal cost of our broken global health system and a call to action.

Format: Hardback
Length: 304 pages
Publication date: 01 September 2022
Publisher: Octopus Publishing Group

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. This tragedy motivated Lachlan to train as a doctor specializing in providing medical care for people living in remote, resource-deprived locations. Lachlan's work with the World Health Organization and Médecins Sans Frontières 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 act.

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. This tragedy motivated Lachlan to train as a doctor specializing in providing medical care for people living in remote, resource-deprived locations. Lachlan's work with the World Health Organization and Médecins Sans Frontières 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 act.

Weight: 530g
Dimension: 161 x 242 x 31 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781913068790