Urgent Calls from Distant Places: An Emergency Doctor’s Notes about Life and Death on the Frontiers of East Africa

A profound exploration of emergency medicine practiced at the most remote and challenging frontiers of East Africa. This inspiring collection of essays finds hope and meaning in the face of extraordinary odds, as a young physician asks: What are the ethical and moral dimensions of saving one life knowing countless others will die? Winner: Best Travel Book, 2024 IndieReader Discovery Award Category Finalist: Best Memoir, 2024 Eric Hoffer Book Award Quarter Finalist: Best Nonfiction Book, 2023 Publisher's Weekly Booklife Award “An enthralling portrait of high-wire emergency care performed under the most trying circumstances….a true-life medical drama that combines tense heroics with mordant reflections.” “Our Verdict: Get It!” - Kirkus Reviews "an absolute home run. One of the best books I have read by a physician writer ever...Wow…just pure wowness." -Dr. Louis Profeta: author of bestselling The Patient in Room Nine Says He’s God. "...Munk brings the East African Flying Doctors to life in his thrilling and insightful memoir... An outstanding read! I highly recommend." - Dr. Jay Wellons: author of All That Moves Us (voted one of the best books of 2022 by The New Yorker and Publishers Weekly.) "Urgent Calls From Distance Places is not only a powerful and dramatic portrait of medical relief work in rural Africa, it’s a deeply-felt and utterly accurate critique of the cruel moral failings of American healthcare as well. Munk is seeking the essential in medicine regardless of where one is in the world, and approaches his story with humility, a synthetic intelligence, wisdom, and an ultimately affirming reverence." - Dr. Frank Huyler: author of The Blood of Strangers In 2008, a young doctor set out for Kenya, to volunteer with the famed AMREF East African Flying Doctors Service. An emergency physician looking to make a difference, Marc-David Munk flew dozens of missions as a flight surgeon to eleven East African countries, including war-torn Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. From his unarmed air ambulance, Munk and his team treated patients suffering from severe trauma, possible Ebola hemorrhagic fever, elephantiasis, malaria, and gunshot wounds. The crew dodged corrupt officials, landed planes on unlit grass strips after first scaring away livestock, were threatened by al-Shabaab jihadis, navigated war zones, and clandestinely treated a U.S military serviceman. They also experienced some of the most beautiful parts of Africa and met the incredible people who live there. The tight-knit crew was passionate about saving lives despite the risks inherent in flights across war zones. In Urgent Calls from Distant Places, the missions described are real and compelling. Readers will meet sick NGO workers in Somalia, malnourished Ugandan soldiers, suicidal teenagers, violent cow rustlers, American special forces, albino children murdered for their body parts, and even 19th-century explorers David Livingstone and Henry Stanley. Each chapter details the medical challenges of the mission but also explores the greater philosophical questions raised by treating patients in East Africa: African history, the impact of colonialism, communism, religion, terrorism, and war. Munk examines the unique histories and politics of the eleven countries he visits. Urgent Calls is the story of the doctors, nurses, and pilots who tackled complex and dangerous missions to save lives. The book also bears witness to the author’s moral development as a healer and as a human. Urgent Calls takes readers to the wild beauty of East Africa and embraces the challenges of healing patients with humility, gratitude, and hope... one life at a time.