Here is a Q and A that explains things in a bit more detail.....

• You refer to the emergency room as the “beloved E.R.” Why?

The term “beloved”, as an adjective, can be defined as dear to the heart. The E.R. is a wonderful and terrible place. I found a parallel between my relationship with the E.R. and other relationships in my life…and just as the E.R. can be wonderful and terrible, our interpersonal relationships can be so as well, yet it doesn’t necessarily make us love any less. The ER was that way for me…I loved it…and I hated it…but it the end, it became a part of me I cannot give up or deny because I left so much of myself in that place. In that way, it became my “beloved E.R.” and remains dear to my heart.

• You worked in the E.R. for seven years. How long ago did you decide to write a story based on your experiences? Have you been writing about them ever since you started working in the emergency room?

I began saving stories that meant something to me…some very funny, some that taught me a very important lesson about medicine, myself, or about human nature. I made a list of these and thought that one day I should write them down and really explore my thoughts and feelings about what happened in that place.

• Your book contains two interlocking stories: one chronicling your E.R. experiences, the other detailing the healing process of your lovesick friend. How did you get the idea to combine these seemingly dissimilar stories into one book?

In working through things that occur to us, many times, we view these things in terms of past experience. In working with “my friend”, I discovered that I was imparting insight I directly gained from the E.R. The thoughts and feelings I had about these experiences and “my friend’s” issues were amazingly similar…and the similarities only increased as we progressed through the trauma response to resolution. I found that these stories became alive again…just as though they happened yesterday.

• In your opinion, what are the most important keys to success as an emergency room doctor?

In addition to a tremendous fund of medical knowledge, one must possess the ability to     think quickly, make decisions, and be mentally prepared for anything.  He or she must be able to divorce themselves from emotion that can affect decision making, yet not to the point of losing touch with being human, or at the expense of empathy. 

• The end of E.R. Confessional reveals a bit of a twist. Do you think this will change the reader’s perception of the story?

I believe it absolutely will. The twist makes one view everything from an entirely different perspective.

• You’ve already written a second emergency room confessional book. Tell us a little bit about how it compares to this one.

The stories written in the first book relate directly to the emotions involved in the interlocking story. In the second book, the stories are told and lead in to my perspective and thoughts related to the stories themselves.

• What inspired you to write a book based on your experiences?

The inspiration came from three sources…1) People generally love hearing the old E.R. stories when I tell them…I thought others might enjoy them as well, 2) At this juncture of my life, there has been enough time pass, such that I am able to really explore what some of these stories actually meant to me then and mean to me now, and, 3) I felt I had something to say to “my friend” and it turned out that what I had to say directly related to many of these stories.

• What is it about E.R Confessional that makes its concept so compelling?

I believe it is because it speaks to everyone from two perspectives…1) very few people have not had some sort of experience, either directly or indirectly, with an emergent problem…the intrigue of the E.R., just the concept itself, is compelling, as evidenced by the popularity it enjoys in the media…2) the issues that face “my friend” are ubiquitous to the human race…we have all loved and lost at one time or another in our lives. In fact, those who have read excerpts from the book have told me they feel like they are “my friend”…they identified with what he goes through.

• Has the process of writing about your experiences in one of the most stressful places in the world been therapeutic for you?

I believe so, in a way, from the standpoint that it has allowed me to, again, explore my feelings about many things. A number of these stories hold special meaning to me and, interestingly, my perspective on what they have meant to me over the years has changed little.  

• In your own words, what is the most important theme of your book? What would you like readers to learn and take away from your experiences?

I believe the most important theme is that, while people can be very different, in a lot of ways we are really very similar…we all laugh and cry…we all feel and experience hurts…we all suffer pain and sometimes we heal…we all have problems and sometimes need a little help…sometimes things that happen to us are funny…and sometimes things we must experience are not very funny at all and are quite painful. The E.R. Confessional speaks to the general human condition.