Paul Austin – författare

In 1987, Paul Austin and his wife Sally were newlyweds, excited about their future together and happily anticipating the birth of their first child. He was a medical student and she was a nurse.Everything changed the moment the doctor rushed their infant daughter from the room just after her birth, knowing instantly that something was wrong. Sarah had almond-shaped eyes, a single crease across her palm instead of three, and low-set ears—all of which suggested that the baby had Down syndrome.Beginning on the day Sarah is born and ending when she is a young adult living in a group home, Beautiful Eyes is the story of a father's journey toward acceptance of a child who is different. In a voice that is unflinchingly honest and unerringly compassionate, Austin chronicles his life with his daughter: watching her learn to walk and talk and form her own opinions, making decisions about her future, and navigating cultural assumptions and prejudices—all the while confronting, with poignancy and moving candor, his own limitations as her father.It is Sarah herself, who, in her own coming of age and her own reconciling with her difference, teaches her father to understand her. Time and again, she surprises him: performing Lady Gaga’s "Poker Face" at a talent show; explaining how the word "retarded" is hurtful; reacting to the events of her life with a mixture of love, pain, and humor; and insisting on her own humanity in a world that questions it. As Sarah begins to blossom into herself, her father learns to look past his daughter’s disability and see her as the spirited, warmhearted, and uniquely wise person she is.

“At this time of the morning—two, three, four o’clock—lonely people seek solace in the fluorescent light of the emergency room. If you’ve been to a twenty-four-hour grocery store late at night, you may have seen the same people. They hesitate, put a can of soup back on the shelf, then take it down again and put it back in the cart. Refugees from the daylight world, they move with the timidity of those whose lives don’t mesh with others’. Night is the time when the lucky people get to sleep. But toothaches throb more in the dark, and backaches become unbearable. People in pain abandon their restless beds and flee their empty kitchens. They go out into the night, in search of comfort.”These are the words of Paul Austin, as he introduces the reader to the men and women—eccentric and well-adjusted, drunk and sober—who make up a day’s work in the ER. From describing the process of issuing a death certificate for a man who shot himself in the head to attending a child in trauma from a car accident, to finding the cause of an elderly man’s fever, Austin paints a vivid picture of life in the ER and its effects on an ER doctor.In his eye-opening account, Austin recalls how the daily grind of long, erratic shifts and endless lines of patients with sad stories sends him down a path of bitterness and cynicism. His own life becomes Exhibit A, as he details the emotional detachment that estranges him from himself and his family. Gritty, powerful, and ultimately redemptive, Austin’s memoir is a revealing glimpse into the fragility of compassion and sanity in the industrial setting of today’s hospitals.

Pediatric incontinence: evaluation and clinical management offers urologists practical, 'how-to' clinical guidance to what is a very common problem affecting up to 15% of children aged 6 years old. Introductory chapters cover the neurophysiology, psychological and genetic aspects, as well as the urodynamics of incontinence, before it moves on to its core focus, namely the evaluation and management of the problem.  All types of management methods will be covered, including behavioural, psychological, medical and surgical, thus providing the reader with a solution to every patient's specific problem.The outstanding editor team led by Professor Israel Franco, one of the world’s leading gurus of pediatric urology, have recruited a truly stellar team of contributors each of whom have provided first-rate, high-quality contributions on their specific areas of expertise.  Clear management algorithms for each form of treatment support the text, topics of controversy are covered openly, and the latest guidelines from the ICCS, AUA and EAU are included throughout.  Perfect to refer to prior to seeing patients on the wards and in the clinics, this is the ideal guide to the topic and an essential purchase for all urologists, pediatric urologists and paediatricians managing children suffering from incontinence.