Endeavour signs Médecins Sans Frontières doctor’s no-holds-barred memoir

Octopus imprint Endeavour has netted the “enthralling” first-hand account from Médecins Sans Frontières doctor Lachlan McIver of “the personal cost of our broken global health system”, Life and Death Decisions: Fighting to Save Lives from Disaster, Disease and Destruction.

Claudia Connal, publishing director, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Australia and New Zealand, from Lucy Morris at Curtis Brown, for publication on 1st September 2022. 

An “an action-packed tale of what medicine means in some of the most remote, poverty-torn areas of the globe” by a doctor practising in the most remote, deprived areas of the globe, the publisher describes the book as “a call to action” and “what we need right now”.

Dr McIver, a rural medicine and public health specialist with a PhD in the health impacts of climate change, currently working as the tropical diseases and planetary health adviser at the headquarters of Médecins Sans Frontières in Geneva, has been forced to confront not only the frustrations of trying to provide medical care in extremely under-resourced environments, the publisher’s synopsis continues, but broader crises such as health inequities, climate change, and drug-resistant infections. Along the way he has faced his own personal battles with depression, alcohol abuse and bankruptcy. 

“‘It’s a profound honour to be working with Endeavour and the Octopus team on Life and Death Decisions,” he said. “My book is filled with stories that I believe the world needs to hear – stories of my patients, my colleagues, their challenges and the massive health problems we all face as a global society that can only be solved if we work together. I hope readers will be enlightened and entertained, but most of all I hope they are shocked into action. We desperately need more of that.”

Connal added: “We are thrilled to be publishing Dr Lachlan McIver’s memoir. Through his work with the World Health Organisation and Médecins Sans Frontières, he is making a vital contribution to our understanding of the terrible toll climate change and the overuse of antibiotics is having on the world’s most vulnerable and remote communities. Life and Death Decisions has a strong beating heart to it, filled with the moving stories of Lachlan’s patients and the dilemmas he and his colleagues face as they try to treat those most in need.”