TRAUMA RED

This is a compelling and inspiring memoir by the trauma surgeon who helped save U.S. Congresswoman Gabby Giffords’ life after an horrendous 2011 mass shooting about how he became a world-class physician who handles extreme medical emergencies.

Trauma Red is an intensely personal non fiction account of the challenging, exhilarating and at times heartbreaking life of an internationally famous trauma surgeon, constructed around Dr. Peter Rhee’s lifesaving role in one of the most violent incidents in recent American history - the 2011 mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona that left six people dead and severely injured U.S. Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and a dozen others.

The book chronicles the path that led Dr. Rhee to his position as chief of the trauma team that saved so many lives on that tragic day: his birth in South Korea as the son of war refugees; his boyhood in Uganda, where his father was a public health surgeon; his teenage years in America, where he struggled with “growing up Asian” in American society; his decision to become a U.S. Navy doctor, and later to specialize in the treatment of traumatic wounds and injuries, a decision that came the moment he literally held the heart of a gunshot victim in his hands as he desperately tried to bring her back to life.

The book is full of wrenching stories of trauma cases Dr. Rhee handled over the past two decades on two distinct battle fronts: In Iraq and Afghanistan, where Dr. Rhee served as a frontline U.S. Navy surgeon trying to save young American soldiers torn apart by war, and in the inner-city battle zones of Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., where Dr. Rhee had to deal with a seemingly endless stream of bloody victims of civilian urban violence. Tough, outspoken, and often controversial, Dr. Rhee isn’t afraid to take on the politics of violence in America and a medical community that too often resists innovation. Written in an accessible, non-technical, conversational style, Trauma Red gives readers an in-depth look into a violent but fascinating world that most of them will never see.

Professor Peter Rhee is a world renowned trauma surgeon, the Chief of Trauma, Critical Care, Emergency Surgery and Burns at the University of Arizona, a tenured professor of surgery, and a retired US Navy Captain after 24 years of active duty. Dr. Rhee has developed a public persona that has taught him how to handle the public and the media.