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A Second Act

What Nearly Dying Teaches Us About Really Living

About The Book

I’ve worked as a doctor for over twenty years, caring for patients who are in the thick fog between life and death. I’ve met hundreds of people who have died, were resuscitated and lived. I’ve long thought that these are the people that we should be listening to, not influencers or business gurus. They know what really matters.

Dr Matt Morgan has met hundreds of people who’ve come back from the dead. Their hearts stopped, their bodies unresponsive, rescued from the brink of death by the modern intensive care techniques he specialises in.

People like Ed, who was walking through a park when there was a bang, a bright light and then nothing. Ed had been hit by a bolt of lightning – 300 million volts, enough to power a city for a day, coursed through his body, short-circuiting his heart. Ed was given life-saving CPR and he survived. He lives a little differently now, every day knowing the thin margins that separate life and death.

In A Second Act, Morgan introduces us to patients who’ve experienced hypothermia, overdoses, heart attacks and transplants to see how their lives have been transformed by the second chance they’ve been given. He shares the lessons they’ve learned, along with his own realisations about life and how to make the most of it. Life shouldn’t be wasted on the living.

About The Author

Dr Matt Morgan is a British intensive care doctor. His open letter addressed to patients during the 2020 COVID pandemic has been read by over half a million people worldwide and viewed by over two million times after featuring on the Channel 4 news. His articles have featured in the Guardian, the Telegraph, the Daily Mail, the Sunday Mirror and Huffington Post. A regular writer for the internationally acclaimed British Medical Journal, his article 'A letter from the ICU' is one of their most popular ever opinion article, read by over 130,000 people in 2020. His first book, Critical, has been translated into four languages. He lives in Cardiff with his family, enjoys long walks with his dog, photography, cold beer and even colder ice cream.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK (January 2, 2025)
  • Length: 272 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781398532342

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