Thank you to the NetGalley, Nimbus Publishing, and the late Dr. Ronald Stewart for an Advanced Reader's Copy of this title!

As a Canadian-American medical student (hopefully) heading into Emergency Medicine residency in 2025 who found their love for medicine in the back of an ambulance, I feel this book was written especially for me.

"Treat Them Where they Lie" is the memoir of Dr. Ronald Stewart, distinguished physician, pioneer of pre-hospital care and emergency medicine as a specialty in two countries, politician and Health Minister, and "Doc Hollywood". It is also the memoir of Ron Stewart, coal-miner's son, hometown hero, dream-chaser, and patient advocate. Reading this book feel like being guided by the quiet "reformed Calvinist" himself through the small-town art gallery of his life before sitting down for an afternoon tea somewhere in Nova Scotia, which is an incredible feeling for a memoir whose contents could easily be the subject of a movie or an award-winning television series. I as the reader feel like I got a good glimpse into the kind of person Ronald Stewart was as a physician and as a person in his community, which can sometimes be hard to do in a few hundred pages.

For those not in the medical field, it is hard to understate the importance of the work Dr. Steward has done in his life, and I felt especially poignant for the effort Dr. Stewart dedicated to street medicine as a long-time pre-hospital healthcare worker who has absolutely benefitted from the ground-up construction of Emergency Medicine as a field today. Though there is still a lot of work to be done in both the United States and Canada in terms of fixes to healthcare, reading about the birth and growth of the field from the eyes of someone who was there on the ground was incredible.

The thing that has stuck with me (and quite frankly, made me tear up) days later as I think about this book, is the quiet dedication, humility, and love I can feel Dr. Stewart has had for Emergency Medicine, his Canadian town, and his friends and colleagues, and how those traits carried him through to the end of his life. This was a man who could have easily sensationalized or made great profit off of his own story, and who additionally could have gone off the rails into his other forays in medicine, politics, the healthcare system, and his international endeavors with little resistance and likely still as many accolades. Instead, he worked hard for the benefit of others; did what was right even when it likely cost him fame, wealth, and power for himself and those around him; and he stayed true to what was important to him and what was right for his community, even when it wasn't his preferred choice. He didn't marry and have children, but continued to love his family and friends, and used the freedom his lifestyle allowed to chase his dreams down, which as a single, childfree soon-to-be-doctor, I also find incredibly inspiring. In the last chapter of his book he is able to look back contentedly at the path of his own life - the end of which he knows is coming soon - and is satisfied with what he is done, which is more than I think most people will ever be able to say.

In fewer words, Dr. Stewart embodies the type of person and physician most of us should strive to be, and would be so lucky to have in our lives, and reading his memoir has inspired me as I prepare to head into my own career. I bitterly regret that I couldn't tell him myself that he made a difference, and will try my best to thank him with dedication to my community, my patients, and myself, which I feel he would appreciate more anyway.

I requested this book for review and was so excited to read it. By the time it was finally approved and added to my shelf I was given less than 24 hours to read the book and therefore was unable to read the book. I was so very disappointed. I really wanted to read this book. Based on the reviews the book sounds like it is an amazing read. I wish I would have had the opportunity to read it. If there is a way that I can be given access to the book before the publication date I would love to read it.

I loved this book. The writing is excellent and the pacing is perfect. The book is touching, but with some very well placed humour. The book also functions as a great history of modern emergency medicine. Impressively, Dr. Stewart had many great accomplishments which he described without the least bit of bragging. I strongly recommend this book for anyone interested in the history of medicine. Thank you to Netgalley and Nimbus Publishing for the advance reader copy.

This was a really interesting memoir by one of the most influential people in the field of emergency medicine. I hadn’t realised how basic emergency medicine had been until the 70s. I think we take for granted how much the modern world has changed the way we access healthcare and how far medicine has come in the last 50 years.

This book certainly lent more on the biography side, spending lots of time exploring Dr Stewart’s early life and how it impacted on his adult life. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this to fans of ‘This is going to hurt’ or ‘this book might save your life’ it’s definitely not as colloquial or quippy. However, I would recommend it to fans of non-fiction more broadly.