Review by Oliver Barasa 1 -- Fighting To Breathe by Jong Yi
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Oliver Barasa 1
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Review by Oliver Barasa 1 -- Fighting To Breathe by Jong Yi
[Following is a volunteer review of "Fighting To Breathe" by Jong Yi.]
Medicine is a very important field in the world. The doctors and nurses need to be appreciated for the good work they do to save people's lives. But there are some of the health workers who are corrupt, greedy and rude, especially those who manages the health centres and hospitals. In the "Fighting to Breathe" by Jong Yi, the author reveals the evils and corrupt practices that takes place in most of the hospitals.
Ginger Kim was born in South Korea and during her childhood, she survived the Gwanju Massacre in 1980s. After studying nursing, she looks for a nice destination in the world where people will appreciate her work and give her the respect she deserves. She starts with Saudi Arabia where she works as a nurse in a certain hospital. Due to insecurity and discrimination of women, she concludes that Saudi Arabia is not a good place for her. She relocates to America, starting with Alaska, keeping in mind that it was the most developed country in the world. But her dreams are not fulfilled when she realises the high level of racism that is practised in the hospitals. The Caucasian nurses are favoured in everything, starting with being given easier tasks to perform up to being promoted despite the poor quality of their jobs. The other nurses who are not white are being harassed openly, discriminated and verbally abused. They can't complain to the management since all senior staff members support the Caucasian nurses. Ginger changes her job in various hospitals but goes through the same experience. Finally when the covid-19 pandemic strikes, she contracts the virus and falls very ill, as a result of shortage of protective facilities in the hospital she works. She is admitted to another hospital where she is being taken care of by a team of various doctors and nurses, including Hyun, a Korean nurse who pationately takes care of her until she gets healed. Ginger finally get discharged from the hospital, but after her legs are amputated due to internal blood clotting. She finally joins her brother Daehan, her sister in law Mary and her lovely friend Autum, the only people who really understand and care for her.
I was really touched by this story. The author vividly described the events such that I could see everything, I could hear the characters and even feel the same way they felt. The sentences were well punctuated and I could not see any grammatical errors. The author used simple English, with very few vocabularies, such that anyone can read and understand well the story. I almost wept when I read about how Ginger was being harassed and verbally abused the moments she tried to look for justice. One event is where Jenna, a white nurse, went to disturb Ginger's patient Nancy, who had psychological problems. When Ginger reported, instead of condemning Jenna for what she did, the management awarded her for demonstrating highest standards of compassion, while Ginger got warned for calling the security to remove her fellow nurse from Nancy's room. It really pained me.
But there was one thing that I was not happy with this story, and this is the arrangement of events. It was a bit contradictory, where by one chapter describes what happened when Ginger was young as well as when she had grown up, even if the dates were indicated. In my opinion, if the events had been arranged according to how they took place, the story would have flown very well. There could be no need for pausing and reminding yourself of what had happened earlier. For this reason, I decided to to rate this book three out of four stars.
I recommend this book to young people, especially those who are studying nursing or medicine related courses. There are many lessons they can learn from good role models to be imitated like Ginger, and bad examples to be avoided like the Caucasian nurses and doctors in the hospitals where Ginger worked.
******
Fighting To Breathe
View: on Bookshelves
Medicine is a very important field in the world. The doctors and nurses need to be appreciated for the good work they do to save people's lives. But there are some of the health workers who are corrupt, greedy and rude, especially those who manages the health centres and hospitals. In the "Fighting to Breathe" by Jong Yi, the author reveals the evils and corrupt practices that takes place in most of the hospitals.
Ginger Kim was born in South Korea and during her childhood, she survived the Gwanju Massacre in 1980s. After studying nursing, she looks for a nice destination in the world where people will appreciate her work and give her the respect she deserves. She starts with Saudi Arabia where she works as a nurse in a certain hospital. Due to insecurity and discrimination of women, she concludes that Saudi Arabia is not a good place for her. She relocates to America, starting with Alaska, keeping in mind that it was the most developed country in the world. But her dreams are not fulfilled when she realises the high level of racism that is practised in the hospitals. The Caucasian nurses are favoured in everything, starting with being given easier tasks to perform up to being promoted despite the poor quality of their jobs. The other nurses who are not white are being harassed openly, discriminated and verbally abused. They can't complain to the management since all senior staff members support the Caucasian nurses. Ginger changes her job in various hospitals but goes through the same experience. Finally when the covid-19 pandemic strikes, she contracts the virus and falls very ill, as a result of shortage of protective facilities in the hospital she works. She is admitted to another hospital where she is being taken care of by a team of various doctors and nurses, including Hyun, a Korean nurse who pationately takes care of her until she gets healed. Ginger finally get discharged from the hospital, but after her legs are amputated due to internal blood clotting. She finally joins her brother Daehan, her sister in law Mary and her lovely friend Autum, the only people who really understand and care for her.
I was really touched by this story. The author vividly described the events such that I could see everything, I could hear the characters and even feel the same way they felt. The sentences were well punctuated and I could not see any grammatical errors. The author used simple English, with very few vocabularies, such that anyone can read and understand well the story. I almost wept when I read about how Ginger was being harassed and verbally abused the moments she tried to look for justice. One event is where Jenna, a white nurse, went to disturb Ginger's patient Nancy, who had psychological problems. When Ginger reported, instead of condemning Jenna for what she did, the management awarded her for demonstrating highest standards of compassion, while Ginger got warned for calling the security to remove her fellow nurse from Nancy's room. It really pained me.
But there was one thing that I was not happy with this story, and this is the arrangement of events. It was a bit contradictory, where by one chapter describes what happened when Ginger was young as well as when she had grown up, even if the dates were indicated. In my opinion, if the events had been arranged according to how they took place, the story would have flown very well. There could be no need for pausing and reminding yourself of what had happened earlier. For this reason, I decided to to rate this book three out of four stars.
I recommend this book to young people, especially those who are studying nursing or medicine related courses. There are many lessons they can learn from good role models to be imitated like Ginger, and bad examples to be avoided like the Caucasian nurses and doctors in the hospitals where Ginger worked.
******
Fighting To Breathe
View: on Bookshelves
Latest Review: Fighting To Breathe by Jong Yi
