For Readers of Paul Kalanithi's When Breath Becomes Air, Everyday Emotions Are Taken to Extremes in the ICU as Recounted by an Intensive Care Doctor
Dr. Aoife Abbey takes us beyond the medical perspective to see the humanity at work in hospitals through the eyes of the doctors and nurses who witness and experience the full spectrum of human emotion in every shift. It is their responsibility to mitigate the grief of a family in mourning, calm a patient about to die, and confront their own fear of failure when lives are on the line. Whether they're providing hospice care, tending to victims of car accidents or violent attacks, determining the correct treatment for someone displaying signs of a heart-attack or stroke, and managing staff, stress is a doctor's number one companion. Cycling through the whirlwind of emotion that accompanies every case isn't only exhausting-it can be fatal. Told using seven key emotions-grief, anger, joy, fear, distraction, disgust, and hope-Seven Signs of Life opens the door, and heart, of the hectic life inside a hospital to reveal what it means to be alive and how it feels to care for others.
"A brilliant, compelling account of what it is like to spend your days caring for patients 'on the fringe of existence'... A hugely life-affirming book. In between the many grim situations encountered on a daily basis, Abbey shows us moments of both joy and deep emotional connection."
Kathryn Hughes, Mail on Sunday
"A welcome addition to the medical-literary canon."
Danielle Ofri, MD, PhD, author of What Patients Say, What Doctors Hear
