An urgent, on-the-scene account of chaos and compassion on the front lines of ground zero for Covid-19, from a senior doctor at New York City’s busiest emergency room
 
“Remarkable and inspiring . . . We’re lucky to have this vivid firsthand account.”—A. J. Jacobs, bestselling author of The Year of Living Biblically 

When former New York Times journalist Dan Koeppel texted his cousin Robert Meyer, a twenty-year veteran of the emergency room at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, at the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis in the United States, he expected to hear that things were hectic. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being overwhelmed, where do you think you are? Koeppel asked. Meyer’s grave reply—100—was merely the cusp of the crisis that would soon touch every part of the globe. 
 
In need of an outlet to process the trauma of his working life over the coming months, Meyer continued to update Koeppel with what he’d seen and whom he’d treated. The result is an intimate record of historic turmoil and grief from the perspective of a remarkably resilient ER doctor. Every Minute Is a Day takes us into a hospital ravaged by Covid-19 and is filled with the stories of promises made that may be impossible to keep, of life or death choices for patients and their families, and of selflessness on the part of medical professionals who put themselves at incalculable risk. 
 
As fast-paced and high-tempo as the ER in which it takes place, Every Minute Is a Day is at its core an incomparable firsthand account of unrelenting compassion, and a reminder that every human life deserves a chance to be saved.

An urgent, on-the-ground account of chaos and compassion from the front lines of COVID-19, from a New York Times journalist and a senior doctor at New York City's busiest emergency room

When Dan Koeppel texted his cousin Robert Meyer, a twenty-year veteran of the emergency room at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis in the United States, he expected to hear that things were hectic. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being overwhelmed, where do you think you are? Koeppel asked. Meyer's grave reply-100-was merely the cusp of the crisis that has since touched every part of the globe.

In need of an outlet to process the trauma of his working life over the coming months, Meyer continued to update Koeppel with what he'd seen and whom he'd treated, their exchanges acting as part diary, part family therapy, and eventually a document of historic chaos and grief. Combining the frontline perspective of an ER doctor and a journalist's discerning research and reporting, Every Minute Is a Day takes us into a hospital ravaged by COVID-19, filled with the stories of promises made that may be impossible to keep, of life and death choices for patients and their families, and of selflessness on the part of medical professionals who put themselves at incalculable risk.

As fast-paced and high-tempo as the ER in which it takes place, Every Minute Is a Day is at its core an incomparable firsthand account of unrelenting compassion and a reminder that every human life deserves a chance to be saved.

“A riveting firsthand account of the first six months of the Covid-19 pandemic . . . This is hard-hitting nonfiction in the vein of Five Days at Memorial. Its re-creation of an atmosphere of daily panic and uncertainty makes it as absorbing as any thriller.”—Shelf Awareness (starred review)

“As many have said before, the Covid-19 crisis brought out both the worst and the best of humanity. Here is a remarkable and inspiring example of the latter. Reading Robert Meyer and Dan Koeppel’s book made me all the more grateful for the unimaginable sacrifices and stresses that the frontline medical workers went through. We’re lucky to have this vivid firsthand account.”—A. J. Jacobs, bestselling author of The Year of Living Biblically
 
“This book is a tour de force of rupture and repair. It is also a deeply compassionate eyewitness account of a deadly pandemic catching humanity by surprise, forcing us to rethink and reimagine while showing ways to reconnect through shared joys and sorrows.”—Azra Raza, MD, professor of medicine at Columbia University and author of The First Cell
 
“This page-turner of a book is an eloquent dispatch from one of the early epicenters of the Covid pandemic. Sweeping in scope, dramatic in tone, and intimate in human detail, it is ultimately a story of triumph amid fearful anguish and loss.”—Gabor Maté, MD, author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts

“A gripping, cinematic page-turner that will transport you to the front lines and remind you how we are all connected. . . . What Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal did for our compassion toward aging, Every Minute Is a Day will do for emergency medicine and all who aspire to understand or practice it.”—Lisa Napoli, author of Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie
 
“I was captured by Every Minute Is a Day. It gave me an intimate, inside look at what the pandemic has been like for those fighting it on the front lines. The war metaphor is apt—the narrative reads with the tension and urgency of a war novel.”—Philip Caputo, author of A Rumor of War

“[A] heart-wrenching report . . . The authors capture the ad hoc response of even the most skilled doctors to an unprecedented calamity . . . and raise hard questions about the U.S. health-care system’s lack of preparedness. Readers will gain a visceral appreciation for what it took to battle the first wave of the pandemic.”—Publishers Weekly

“[Every Minute Is a Day] isn’t only a document of trauma; it also notes moments of joy. . . . [T]his memoir and sociological account enlightens, reminds us how far we have come, and is a model for practicing gratitude.”—Library Journal

“A dramatic first-person account of the doctor’s experience during the first six months of the pandemic . . . The testimonies are moving and heartbreaking, delivering a realistic portrait of a city hospital in crisis. . . . Touching evidence of compassion and sacrifice during the worst of the pandemic.”—Kirkus Reviews