Frontline: How to Save Lives in War, Disaster and Disease

One heroic doctor’s unflinchingly honest and visceral account of the impossible ethical choices required by medical emergencies.

‘A true Humanitarian.’ David Nott, author of War Doctor

Tony Redmond is one of the few truly good people you will ever meet.

His is a story of tireless hard work and astonishing bravery across wars, refugee crises, air crashes, earthquakes, typhoons, volcanoes, and disease outbreaks for over thirty years. Featuring stories of hope and redemption, as well as untold suffering and mismanagement, this unique account could only have been written one who has for decades performed incredible feats of altruism.

His raw, honest book takes the reader from the wards of Manchester’s Nightingale hospital to Kosovo, from Sierra Leone’s Ebola outbreak to Kashmir, and from Haiti to the Philippines, finding its author risking life and limb to help those affected by events beyond their control.

But while humanitarian work and medicine require an innate goodness, not all those involved have benign motives. And saving lives requires difficult choices: between the desire to relieve suffering and the need to weigh up the context. Too often medical aid is found wanting, doing more harm than good.

How are life-or-death choices made in the heat of the moment? What are the consequences of your action, or inaction? Is it better at times to do nothing? How do you live with yourself if you want to help but can’t? This is a frank account of the personal toll – physical, mental and social – frontline medicine levies on those who choose to do it. But ultimately, it offers a tale of optimism, persistence and triumph over adversity, speaking to the resilience and fortitude of those who help and those whose lives they save.