No Need to Trouble the Heart is Patrick Conlon’s compelling account of a loved one’s rapid descent to near-death and long journey back to health. Jim O’Neill, Conlon’s partner of 30 years, one day “settled in to his favourite chair and began to die.” A case of the flu has left O’Neill short of breath, so a visit to a walk-in clinic is planned. A neighbour, who happens to be a nurse, calls 911, summoning a crowd of firefighters and paramedics, who whisk O’Neill away to the nearest hospital emergency room.

Soon, O’Neill is in an induced coma, on a respirator, and close to death. His vital organs shut down, he suffers a possible heart attack and stroke, and his body loses weight and muscle tone as it struggles to stay alive, fighting off what Conlon and O’Neill’s family eventually learn is ARDS, Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. In chronicling the 15 weeks O’Neill spends in hospital, Conlon conveys a sense of the complexity and fragility of the human body, how rapidly the body can flounder, and the time, effort, and willpower required to restore the functions and mobility we take for granted.

Though Conlon offers praise for the many health professionals responsible for O’Neill’s around-the-clock care, he also documents communications failures between staff and patient, and between staff and family members, as well as occasional lapses of compassion. Key decisions – for example, the transfer of O’Neill to a new hospital – come as a surprise to the family. Nursing staff directly responsible for O’Neill’s care urge family members to take up concerns with hospital management instead of advocating on O’Neill’s behalf.

Added to this are Conlon’s apprehensions about the reaction of the health-care system and hospital staff to a gay couple and his role as next of kin. He is also anxious about how O’Neill’s siblings will react to his next-of-kin status.

A timely book, No Need to Trouble the Heart puts a human face on the state of health care in Canada today. It also documents the progress made on the issue of gay equality and provides a warm and loving portrait of a committed couple struggling with catastrophic illness.