Stories From The Edge Of Life

"How well do I know myself?" When was the last time this question crossed your mind? As we live our lives, we fall into routines that often take us away from ourselves. We become distant from who we are. We often think we are immortal until we face events that present us with a reality-check. The moments that break this cycle make us pause and contemplate. Such moments of uncertainty are faced by patients and their families. It is in these moments, on the edge of life and death, when some of the most important insights about life, ourselves and others are realized with utmost clarity. Regardless of your age, the stories in this book will take you through a journey of such events experienced at patients' bedsides and prompt you to question yourself. There will be a tug of war between your mind and your heart with space provided for you to journal. What would you do in such situations? Are you prepared to face them? Your answers will take you on a roller coaster ride into a world that will help you grow closer to the person you think you are closest to - yourself.Proceeds from the sale of this book will go to support the alleviation of suffering of patients worldwide by funding Palliative Care Network (www.palliativecarenetwork.com) projects. Thank you for your support!

‘The world beyond the thought horizon is as vast as the universe, and probing it is the stuff of dreams, imaginative thinking and new technologies.’ The gap between rapid scientific progress and public understanding faces unprecedented challenges. Leading research scientist Mike Berridge explores this troubled ground from a rare vantage point. His descriptions of stunning new advances in human health are offset by hard questions about society’s ability to keep pace. This exploration brings us into contact with hotly contested public health issues, such as cancer treatment, sugar consumption, and water fluoridation. It is also a heartfelt plea to place robust and impartial science at the centre of our thinking for the future.

Collects more than twenty true stories of people facing critical life or death decisions, including a man saving someone in the path of an oncoming train, a tragic mountainclimbing accident, and a family caught in a tsunami.

'It's a brilliant book... There are lessons in every paragraph... Get it now.' Chris Evans 'Wonderous and wild. I loved this book' James Nestor, bestselling author of Breath 'Moving, raw and unflinching' Julia Samuel, bestselling author of This Too Shall Pass 'Incredible storytelling' Dr Rangan Chatterjee, bestselling author of Feel Better in 5 ____________________________________________________________________________ How do you carry on when things go deadly wrong? When Dr Rahul Jandial operated on Karina, an eleven-year-old girl whose spinal cord was splitting in two, he had to make an impossible decision. He followed his head over his gut and Karina was left permanently paralysed, altering both patient and surgeon's lives for ever. This decision would haunt Rahul for decades, a constant reminder of the fine line between saving and damaging a life. As one of the world's leading brain surgeons, Rahul is the last hope for patients with extreme forms of cancer. In treating them, he has observed humanity at its most raw and most robust. He has journeyed to unimaginable extremes with them, guiding them through the darkest moments of their lives. Life on a Knife's Edge is Rahul's poetic and beautifully written account of the resilience, courage and belief he has witnessed in his patients, and the lessons about human nature he has learned from them. It is about the impossible choices he has to make, and the fateful consequences he is forced to live with. From challenging the ethics of surgical practices, to helping a patient with locked-in syndrome communicate her dying wish to her family, Rahul shares his extraordinary experiences, revealing the depths of a surgeon's psyche that is continuously pushed to its limits.

10 escape stories from around the world.

From the author of We Are the Ants comes “another winner” (Booklist, starred review) about a boy who believes the universe is slowly shrinking as the things he remembers are being erased from others’ memories. Tommy and Ozzie have been best friends since the second grade, and boyfriends since eighth. They spent countless days dreaming of escaping their small town—and then Tommy vanished. More accurately, he ceased to exist, erased from the minds and memories of everyone who knew him. Everyone except Ozzie. Ozzie doesn’t know how to navigate life without Tommy, and soon he suspects that something else is going on: that the universe is shrinking. When Ozzie is paired up with the reclusive and secretive Calvin for a physics project, it’s hard for him to deny the feelings developing between them, even if he still loves Tommy. But Ozzie knows there isn’t much time left to find Tommy—that once the door closes, it can’t be opened again. And he’s determined to keep it open as long as possible.

When Ivy Rose returns to her hometown to oversee an estate sale, she soon discovers that her grandmother left behind more than trinkets and photo frames--she provided a path to the truth behind Ivy's adoption. Shocked, Ivy seeks clues to her past, but a key piece to the mystery is missing. Twenty-four years earlier, Harvey James finds an abandoned newborn who gives him a sense of human connection for the first time in his life. His desire to care for the baby runs up against the stark fact that he is homeless. When he becomes entwined with two people seeking to help him find his way, Harvey knows he must keep the baby a secret or risk losing the only person he's ever loved. In this dual-time story from debut novelist Amanda Cox, the truth--both the search for it and the desire to keep it from others--takes center stage as Ivy and Harvey grapple with love, loss, and letting go.

Willie Sutton was casing a bank when he noticed that the manager looked a lot like Sutton himself, so he walked into the vault, loaded up with banknotes, and calmly walked out. D.B. Cooper hijacked a plane, demanded $200,000 in payment, and parachuted from the aircraft. He was never captured. Other criminals in this book were no less brazen: - Arthur Barry, the greatest jewel thief in American criminal history - Vincente Perugia, who boldly stole one of the world’s greatest art treasures - Amil Dinsio, one of the most accomplished bank vault robbers in the U.S. - Victor Desmarais and Leo Martial, a hapless duo who bungled their getaway - James Landis, who stole two bricks of freshly printed banknotes from his employer—the U.S. Treasury - Adam Worth, the Napoleon of Crime - the Great Train Robbers, who planned one of the largest heists of all time - the five heisters of the Great Purolator Caper, whose ineptitude ensured capture Be prepared for some high-stakes action in THIEVES! While many ended their careers broke and disillusioned, these impresarios of crime make for great reading.