This was a very interesting read into rural medicine.

It is well written and very informative. An eye opener of a book

Loved the book. What an adventure and life. I was sucked in a taken along for the ride. You won't regret starting it.

This was honest, it was raw, it was absolutely eye openly brilliant! Lachie has lived an amazing, if barmy life. The travel at the drop of the hat all over the world, to conflict stricken areas, to impoverished islands and to rural Australian outback. The detail of the work he did, and the patients he treated, as well as the countries he stayed in was beautiful. There is much sadness at the state of the world, but also tenderness and care in the medicine and help that medical professionals are looking to give. Highly recommended .

Life and death decisions is the memoir of Dr Lachlan McIver and his journey to becoming a doctor.

It starts with Dr Lachlan heartbreakiny finding his father dead on the roadside and then details his life from that point.

The theme of such sadness reoccurs in the book as Dr Lachlan details his work in third world counties. I was sickened (although deep down not at all surprised) how current the pharmaceutical and medical world is. All the medicine available to help and cure people yet used for financial gain, prices raising so that many people (first and third world, but third world especially) are unable to access adequate and necessary treatments. In comes the likes of Dr Lachlan and his none profit who with the help of other medical volunteers helped where they could.

Dr Lachlan is upfront and honest about his personal struggles such as depression, financial woes etc.

I enjoyed reading this book and it was very insightful.

*I was given an advance readers copy (ARC) from NetGalley for my honest opinion of this book*

This book is very well written and is a real page turner. I was gripped from the start. A great insight into his life and career. Loved it.

I never thought this is a book for me - and not to read start to finish. It I just could not put it down. The story is much bigger than one man and is career. It highlights a number of global issues and deconstructs them into understanadabke and approachable fragments

An honest account of some of the grim aspects of being a doctor in some of the world's most rural places!

It's not for the faint hearted as some chapters provide accounts some readers may find upsetting.

Great memoir. Great man. Great work.

A fantastic account of rural medicine. Having worked within military medicine I was able to truly empathise with the author on some of his struggles. A great balance of humour interspersed with real human anguish. An inspiration to those who have valuable skills to offer remote communities.

Very powerful read…. 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. It was this tragedy that motivated Lachlan to train as a doctor specialising 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 action.

A well-written, very engaging medical memoir from a doctor that practices medicine at the most remote parts of the world. It held my interest throughout and I appreciated the author's honesty.

A MEMOIR OF ONE DRS EXPERIENCES IN SOME OF THE MOST REMOTE AND NEGLECTED PARTS OF THE WORLD. CONFRONTING INEQUALITIES IN HEALTH CARE AVAILABILITY AND RESOURCES BUT ALSO HOW CLIMATE CHANGE AND ANTIBIOTIC OVERUSE OR MISUSE IMPACTS ON HEALTH ALSO. IT WAS AN INCREDIBLE READ THAT WAS MADE EVEN MORE LIKEABLE BY HOW HONEST AND RELATABLE THE AUTHOR IS, SHARING HIS OWN PERSONAL CHALLENGES ALONG THE WAY. IT WAS ALSO INTERESTING GETTING A SMALL INSIGHT INTO HIS ROLES WITH MSF AND WHO AND HOW THEY WORK FROM AN INSIDERS PERSPECTIVE.

DON’T BE PUT OFF BY THE MEDICAL ASPECT OF THE BOOK IT WASN’T PARTICULARLY HEAVY AND WAS AN EASY READ FULL OF EXCITING STORIES OF ADVENTURE

Today, is CV my spot on Random Things Tours blog tour for Dr Lachlan McIver’s Life and Death Decisions. I read this memoir as a hardback for this tour and I’m so, so happy that I took part on this tour as I loved this book so much. It was an amazing true-story account of hard-working doctor’s life, an astonishing account really. It was a gem of a book which I will treasure long after finishing this book.
I have always found medicine, especially tropical medicine fascinating. From an early age, I loved reading Robin Cook and Michael Palmer’s medical thrillers. I even very briefly considered that nursing or midwifery might be a career for me. I’m too squeamish for this though, but my love for medical literature remained. So, this book was a perfect read for me, and should be essential reading for anybody considering a medical career.
It was an honest, powerful and emotional account of a life lived helping others. I loved, and I’m in awe, of the fact that in some areas where a natural disaster had hit these doctors worked tirelessly with no electricity, water or proper medicines while trying to save lives. I loved learning more about each and every case; seeing these tropical and exotic locations through the author’s eyes. This is a great memoir, and it held my attention and interest from the very first page to the last one.
This is a book that deserves 6 stars rather than 5. I think this is a book that everybody should read. I loved it.

Wow, dinner parties would never be boring with Lachlan at the table would they? This was absolutely fascinating, eye opening and quite disturbing in places when talking about public health in some of the world's most impoverished areas.

Full of interesting stories from Lachlan's career, his personal life, current affairs and so much more, I couldn't turn the pages fast enough.

This is a book I would recommend everyone needs to read.

Many thanks to Random Things Tours for my tour spot.

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐

This was a foray into non-fiction that made me remember how enthralling a genre it is.
I have had a long-held fascination with the medical sciences and couldn't wait to read this unusual insight into previously unknown territories (pardon the pun).
McIver writes a wonderfully engaging account of his studies and life as a doctor in Australia and far-reaching corners of the world.
I learnt so much about rural medicine, in deprived areas with little or no access to the services we take for granted.
Interestingly, McIver admits it wasn't his childhood dream to be a doctor, and fell upon the profession somewhat, but he finds a branch of medicine which inspires and at which he can excel.
McIver doesn't hold back- he writes with such honesty and frankness it's hard to read at times, but the interesting cases McIver writes about keeps the readers gripped and hanging on to his every word.
His mission hits home- to raise awareness for the drastic gulf in medical care between wealthy and poorer countries and it is a harrowing read which I highly recommend.

Wow this was such a brilliant read. It was that good that I couldn't put it down, I HAD to read it in one sitting which ment I had a very late night. The author has had such an amazing life so far and this made for one fascinating read. I just couldn't believe what I was reading at times it was so shocking what medical companies do. All this life changing medicine available but they keep the prices up. This means that third world countries can't afford medicine. I have to praise author for all he has do to provide care for those in small villages that are often quite dangerous and for creating a non profit organisation bring over voluntary doctors and nurses to help small villages. It makes for an exciting and wonderful, very insightful and eye opening book. The author also covers his own depression, and finance worries as he works for very little money and donations to a local school. It was amazing how much one person can sacrifice so much for his work. This book is definitely a real roller coaster ride that you just won't be able to put down. The book is so well wrote and flows so well your likely to forget your reading and lose track of all time. I definitely recommend reading this book especially if you love autobiographies and like me anything set in a different country that you love in. 

Only the highest of praise goes out to the author and publishers for bringing us this brilliant book taking about learning on the job wow. I definitely hope this author writes more books as I will be first in line to read them. 

The above review has already been placed on goodreads, waterstones, Google books, Barnes&noble, kobo, amazon UK where found and my blog https://ladyreading365.wixsite.com/website/post/life-and-death-decisions-by-dr-lachlan-mclver-octopus-publishing-5-stars either under my name or ladyreading365

Thank you for the advanced copy. This is my favourite genre of books, I enjoyed this book.
Well written, each chapter was different and learned alot. Hard going at times but well worth it.

📚 Book Review 📚
Life and Death Decisions by Dr Lachlan McIver

‘I gazed up at the dazzling spectacle of the desert’s night sky. An unfamiliar feeling stirred deep in my being. This was certainly a side of doctoring I’d never seen before. This was extreme medicine’

I love when you read a book and know you’ll be coming back to it time and time again. This gripping book is a medical memoir like no other I’ve read before - part globetrotting adventure, part reflection on the international medical emergency response system.

Lachlan was 16 when he found his father dead on the side of a road from a heart attack. This sent him down a road into medicine. During his medical studies he became passionate about providing medical care in rural settings - hard to describe just how rural the places he works in are - he could be thousands of miles from the nearest hospital with the surgeon he desperately needs in a bar, several beers down, a few islands away. He goes on to work with Medicins Sans Frontiers and the WHO.

The clinical situations he described are heart stopping and fast paced and will have you on the age of your seat. These stressful situations are offset by his very relaxed nature. The patient is still at the centre of the story, there are no cheap laughs at the patients expense.

The book is absolutely joyous, despite being pierced by tragic stories like his fathers. So many of the doctors, nurses and educators he has met are incredibly inspirational. The book is totally immersive, I feel like I clocked up a few months on a rural medicine placement by the end of this book.

This is a deeply moving and important book. It should be read by anyone with even a passing interest in health and health inequality, public health, rural communities, disease or humanitarian efforts. I will be buying copies of this for so many people - it’s just so good. Thank you so much to @netgalley for this advance copy. It is out now.

This was an Interesting read, hard going at times but very eye opening. A good read if you enjoy this genre

This was well written. I found it got rather repetitive however and there was too much about his career building to the point where I felt like I was rereading the same events just worded differently

Every chapter of this book had a different focus and interest which meant that every time i promised 'just one more chapter' I inevitably got pulled into the next.
The book covered personal history and development, professional and career change, information about wider environmental and medical issues, both on regional and global scales, and then the bit we all enjoy, the recounting of specific cases and patients. I am never, ever getting over the maggots...

I downloaded this ARC on a whim because anything medical interests me and I was hoping it would be a book about weird medical cases that Lachie had encountered, But I actually found the wider environmental and medical issues fascinating. These considerations are just not something that the everyday person thinks about, firstly because they don't really enter our world through media often, and secondly because although we know about climate change and resistant bacteria in a general sense, the specific impact of both on health isn't as known.

That brings me onto the writing style. It was effortless to read, easy to understand and not at all lecturing in tone, depsite the medical terms, potted histories of countries and scientific data/theory/explanations.

To say I 'enjoyed'it would be the wrong phrase, but it was certainly interesting and, for me, compulsive reading.