The Sky Was Falling

January 15, 2024
Pediatric surgeon Griggs shares her frantic experiences during the first months of the Covid-19 pandemic in this poignant debut memoir. Griggs was months away from completing a New York City surgical fellowship in early 2020, just before hospitals started to fill with Covid patients. Shortages in personal protective equipment for healthcare workers led her to send her children out of state, and to publish a widely read March 2020 op-ed in the New York Times that urged the public to share their PPE. Much of her account is focused on the daily quagmires of the early pandemic, as when Griggs commends a pediatric ICU nurse who disregarded protocols to soothe an infant who needed to be touched, or when she denounces coworkers for stealing masks from the hospital for outside use. Interspersed throughout are gripping passages about performing complicated surgeries on young patients and flashbacks illuminating Griggs’s path to becoming a surgeon. Her well-calibrated combination of polemic and personal history will keep readers glued to the page. It’s a welcome addition to the shelf of medical memoirs about the peak of Covid-19. Agent: Susan Gluck, WME.

February 1, 2024
Testimony from the front lines of the pandemic. Completing a pediatric surgery fellowship at a major New York City hospital, Griggs kept a diary, from February 2020 until her graduation in July, to record her experiences as Covid-19 emerged and surged. The hospital responded by canceling elective surgeries and starting each day with a briefing about the latest guidelines for testing and quarantine, which kept changing. Quickly, workers' frustration mounted over the severe lack of masks, protective gear, and ventilators. On March 17, Griggs voiced that frustration in "The Sky Is Falling," an op-ed piece published in the New York Times. Media attention led to interviews, and throughout the spring, Griggs found herself a spokesperson/whistleblower, sometimes receiving sharp rebukes from other surgeons. "A misstep on Twitter," she realized, "could cost me my career." The pandemic deeply affected her views on her profession. "Like many healthcare workers," she writes, "I lost the illusion that my own life and work was paramount to my employer." Inequity and patient overload caused many to quit. "The worst part about working in healthcare since the start of the pandemic," she reflects, "has been the mass exodus of so many brilliant, dedicated doctors, nurses, and other professionals from the clinical practice of medicine." The author is candid about the stress of motherhood, her desperate desire to protect her children, the isolation she felt when she sent them out of the city to stay with her parents, and her loneliness for her husband, a surgeon in Boston. She hopes her memoir will serve as a warning: "The speed at which we shift from casual concern to full-blown disaster mode is just wild," she wrote in March. It could happen again. A sharp critique of the health care system and a valuable record of the early days of the pandemic.

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February 1, 2024

Griggs has been on the frontlines of the COVID pandemic as a pediatric surgery fellow in Manhattan; her experiences shaped her well-written debut. Readers may remember her March 2020 New York Times op-ed about her fears and frustrations over the worsening situation in hospitals. Since then, connecting with the public about the pandemic, to increase awareness about the obstacles medical personnel encounter when trying to acquire personal protective equipment and other necessary supplies, has become one of Griggs's missions. In her book, she chronicles the physical and mental toll of serving on the frontlines, performing surgeries on children affected by the virus, and worrying about bringing it home to her own children. While Griggs's story may be all too familiar to other medical professionals, her memoir provides a remarkable insider's view of her experiences as they unfolded, along with details about her previous work. Griggs, who studies public health, proposes new policies in the event of a new pandemic. VERDICT A recommended purchase. This debut author's writing style and fast-paced story will appeal to readers interested in a behind-the-scenes look at hospital operations and personnel during the COVID pandemic.--Mattie Cook

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