Life in the balance : a doctor's stories of intensive care /
Down, Jim.
Life in the balance : a doctor's stories of intensive care / Jim Down. - UK : Viking, 2023. - 241 pages ; 23 cm.
Dr Jim Down brings us to the very heart of the intensive care unit - the section of the hospital where the sickest patients are brought to be cared for until their condition improves. With honesty, humility and a streak of dark humour, Dr Down describes the quietly heroic work of doctors and nurses on the ICU, a place which sits at the cutting edge of medical technology and where a split-second decision can make the difference between life and death. From headline-grabbing cases like that of Alexander Litvinenko, poisoned by Russian agents and admitted to Down's ward, to the appalling aftermath of a train crash, this book offers an inside glimpse of intensive care medicine, its immense challenges, deleterious effects on doctors' mental health and enormous rewards. Its profundity will make you reconsider the fragility of life and reframe your understanding of what it means to care.
9780241506387 (hbk.) : 18.99 0241506387 (hbk.) : 18.99
Down, Jim.
Intensive care units--Great Britain.
Critical care medicine--Great Britain.
Health and Fitness.
Health and Wellbeing.
Autobiography: science, technology & medicine.
Health systems & services.
Clinical & internal medicine.
RA975.5.I56
616.028 DOW
Life in the balance : a doctor's stories of intensive care / Jim Down. - UK : Viking, 2023. - 241 pages ; 23 cm.
Dr Jim Down brings us to the very heart of the intensive care unit - the section of the hospital where the sickest patients are brought to be cared for until their condition improves. With honesty, humility and a streak of dark humour, Dr Down describes the quietly heroic work of doctors and nurses on the ICU, a place which sits at the cutting edge of medical technology and where a split-second decision can make the difference between life and death. From headline-grabbing cases like that of Alexander Litvinenko, poisoned by Russian agents and admitted to Down's ward, to the appalling aftermath of a train crash, this book offers an inside glimpse of intensive care medicine, its immense challenges, deleterious effects on doctors' mental health and enormous rewards. Its profundity will make you reconsider the fragility of life and reframe your understanding of what it means to care.
9780241506387 (hbk.) : 18.99 0241506387 (hbk.) : 18.99
Down, Jim.
Intensive care units--Great Britain.
Critical care medicine--Great Britain.
Health and Fitness.
Health and Wellbeing.
Autobiography: science, technology & medicine.
Health systems & services.
Clinical & internal medicine.
RA975.5.I56
616.028 DOW