Emergency!:: True Stories from the Nation's Ers

California emergency-room physician Brown here supplements tales of his own experiences with contributions from almost 100 other doctors and nurses in a volume that is by turn tense, poignant and amusing. ER personnel confront the entire range of human life from its beginning to its end, but hardest to bear, they find, are crib deaths and futile attempts to resuscitate child and teenage accident victims, not so much because the ERs are traumatized by mortality but because they must deal with the survivors. Among their least favorite patients are unwashed derelicts and near-psychotics high on drugs or liquor. Regarded as a minor annoyance are malingerers and hypochondriacs, who waste the resources of the ERs. There are funny stories here as well, like the one about the doctor who was misunderstood when he requested a stool from a patient, meaning a chair. (Feb.)