Reviews:

By accompanying Dr. Lohaus on his quest to return from the separation of illness, we learn a great deal about the human journey -- an important lesson indeed for all of us: physicians, patients and family members alike.

Gregory Fricchione, MD
Associate Chief of Psychiatry
Director, Division of Psychiatry and Medicine
Massachusetts General Hospital
Associate Professor of Psychiatry
Harvard Medical School

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Mayday! is well written and tracks the frightening progression of Dr. Lohaus' illness and recovery. Privacy issues, spirituality in medicine, and the fear and frustration of being a physician-as-patient are chronicled in a fast-paced, journal format that makes for an interesting starting point on a myriad of topics.

Jim Scott, MD
Dean, School of Medicine and Health Sciences
Professor of Emergency Medicine
The George Washington University

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This brief story ends with his rebirth to life. The account is precise and invaluable as an example of what doctors are like when they are patients. Read it!

Howard Spiro, MD
Yale University, New Haven
in Connecticut Medicine
68(1):59

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I have often wondered how doctors would feel if they were on the other side of the fence with illness.  Unfortunately we have all had doctors, nurses and medical personal who are anything but compassionate; I don't know about you, but I have wanted to ask them how would they feel if they were undergoing what I was. 

In this work by author, Dr. Allan Lohaus, he takes us on his journey as a patient fighting for his life. From a healthy prosperous man to one who must rely on those of his own profession, we see through his eyes as
he undergoes what so many have before him. He shares his thoughts on pain, suffering,sorrow, fear,frustration,
support and lack of support, compassion, those who do not care, and those who do.

Dr. Lohaus is frank and honest and the read, I feel, is a learning experience for doctors and patients as well.  A different read, at times a difficult read emotionally, but an interesting read and one that will shed light on a myriad of topics concerning the sick and those who attend to them.

Well done.

Shirley Johnson
Midwest Book Review
February 2006

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Allan Lohaus of Wakefield nearly died in 1999. A perforated colon and complications from surgery brought him to the brink. His journey to the brink and back is the subject of Mayday!. Lohaus, a recreational sailor, begins his harrowing tale with a nightmare. He's at the helm of the Second Chance when a storm overtakes him: "...the gray sky suddenly darkens as low black clouds rush in from the west. I smell ozone on the building wind and I hear the distant thunder. Suddenly, lightning bolds zigzag across the sky. Then rain and hail pelt us. ...Wind and spray roar over ten foot swells. Giant boiling waves crash on the deck... Water rushes into the cockpit and through the companionway into the cabin below. 'MAYDAY! MAYDAY! MAYDAY!' I shout as the sloop sinks beneath me." Lohaus wakes in a hospital room to a different kind of nightmare.

Lohaus needed to write the book as part of his healing process, but it also has the potential to affect the healing of others. Some who have survived prolonged critical illness ill recognize their own experiences in Lohaus's crises of spirit and faith, moments of hope and revelation. Others who, knock wood, have kept healthy but been close to the critically ill will gain insight into the suffering and uncertainty that not everyone can express as honestly and graphically as Lohaus.

This is not, however, a story of medical malpractice. It's a story of doctors and nurses doing their utmost to save a life; and of a patient who happens to be a doctor doing his utmost to live. In Mayday! the doctor-as-patient provides a rare perspective on illness, treatment, hospitalization, extreme suffering and the long road back.

Rebecca Rule
Author and Critic
Bookmarks #460
Concord Monitor

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I read Mayday! during a recent trip to Arizona. Very moving, very humbling and also very well written. I could not put it down. I kept asking myself while reading it if I would have the strength and a faith in God deep enough to help me endure this hellish ordeal. It is recommended reading not only to medical students but to longtime practitioners.

Fritz Apollon, MD

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Like Allan Lohaus himself, MAYDAY! is a multi-faceted gem of a book. It's a memoir, love story, and spiritual journey told from the unique perspective of a career physician who finds himself as a hospitalized patient facing multiple intestinal surgeries. MAYDAY! provides a very honest account of being on both sides of the medical fence. Lohaus is able to write about the most intimate of bodily functions with dignity, compassion and a sense of humor. He also writes insightfully about the physicians, health care professionals, family members, friends and God who help him along the long and arduous path to healing. One would not necessarily think of a memoir as being a page-turner, but this journal is. Lohaus shows that after navigating the roughest of waters, it is still possible to get the wind back in one's sails through care, faith and effort. There is so much packed into this remarkable and very-readable little book. I give it my highest recommendation.

Jesselyn Radack
Amazon.com Review