Working Knights, Edwin Leap. Reviewed by D.L. Mann.

Media Review

CJEM 2006;8(1):58

Working Knights. Edwin Leap. 2005. Published by K. Edwin Leap II (www.edwinleap.com). PDF (eBook), US$10.95; Paperback, 172 pp, US$13.95 plus shipping. ISBN 1-59113-629-6.

It was a pleasure to read Ed Leap's Working Knights, a collection of stories that he has compiled over the years relating to his life in and around his emergency department (ED) in rural South Carolina. This wasn't the usual collection of off-beat and humorous anecdotes that we in the business are so used to, but a real honest look at what we do and, hopefully, why we do it. He has managed to weave throughout a sense of humanity that is refreshing.

Obviously a devout family man, the author manages to tie his ED experiences to the bigger picture of life outside the ED. We are reminded that becoming a physician is still "a privilege and a pleasure" despite our many grumblings.

He gives us a few chapters on what it is like to be on the other side of the white coat (e.g., Getting Stoned - kidney stones). Ever creeping complacency is offset by a bout of 9/10 renal colic and a better appreciation of timely analgesic rescue. Then there's the thorny issue of patients actually dying on our shift. In a busy department it is easy to provide the superficial necessities, but Leap reminds us of our heritage (before CT scans) as healers of both body and mind. A little time with the dying and with the grieving family is so very therapeutic for all concerned.

If you still need something a little more concrete, then check out Leap's Important Discharge Instructions. There's everything from Virginity Check through to Whole Body Numbness to Nerves Are Shot. Get a copy for your department and save a lot of time with those lengthy and bothersome discharge dialogues.

I enjoyed this little book very much and will be placing it in our Call Room as the "Gideon's Bible" for our own Working Knights. You must order your own copy directly from his Web site at www.edwinleap.com.

David L. Mann, BPE, MSc, MD, Dipl SpMed
Emergency Medicine
Sports Medicine
Powell River, BC
Tel/Fax 604 485-0120
dwmann@shaw.ca