Decision Point

Taking Risks to Save Lives in Emergency Medicine

Kevin Fong

$39.99

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

The Bodley Head Ltd
15 October 2025

Medical ethics & professional conduct; Accident & emergency medicine; Popular science

Within minutes of the crash, you land at the scene. But nothing can prepare you for what you now find. So what do you do?

Professor Kevin Fong flies with the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service, making split-second, life-or-death decisions in the most extreme circumstances. In this gripping blend of memoir and reportage, he confronts a disturbing truth- sometimes even the best trained expert cannot know the right thing to do.

Telling stories of astonishing skill and catastrophic error, he shows that our ability to move at ever greater speeds in ever greater safety comes with a bitter irony- when something goes wrong - as it must - reacting quickly and effectively enough is now beyond human capability. Reflecting on his own dramatic experiences and those of war medics, pilots and surgeons, Fong considers how we might come to terms with the mess and blur of real decisions made in realtime.

By: Kevin Fong
Imprint: The Bodley Head Ltd
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 240mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781847923684
ISBN 10: 1847923682
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 15 October 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , General/trade , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Kevin Fong is a consultant at UCL Hospitals specialising in intensive-care medicine, where he also holds an honorary chair of Public Engagement for Science and Medicine. He holds degrees in astrophysics, medicine and engineering and has worked with NASA on the effects of space flight on the human body. He is the author of Extremes- Life, Death and the Limits of the Human Body.