What happens when you reach the threshold of life & death
- & come back? As long as humans have lived on the planet, there have been wars, & injured soldiers & civilians. But today, as we engage in wars with increasingly sophisticated technology, we are able to bring people back from ever closer encounters with death. Historian Emily Mayhew explores the reality of medicine & injury in wartime, from the trenches of World War One to the plains of Afghanistan & the rehabilitation wards of Headley Court in Surrey. Mixing vivid & compelling stories of unexpected survival with astonishing insights from the front line of medicine, A Heavy Reckoning is a book about how far we have come in saving, healing & restoring the human body. From the plastic surgeon battling to restore function to a blasted hand to the double amputee learning to walk again on prosthetic legs, Mayhew gives us a new understanding of the limits of human life & the extraordinary costs paid physically & mentally by casualties all over the world.