Seven Signs of Life: Stories from an Intensive Care Doctor - Hardcover

Abbey, Aoife

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 178470945X ISBN 13: 9781784709457

Publisher: Vintage, 2019

Synopsis

'A sensitive, honest, unsentimental and, yes, brave piece of writing that makes for compulsive reading'
Nigella Lawson

Grief. Anger. Joy. Fear. Distraction. Disgust. Hope. All emotions we expect to encounter over our lifetime.

But what if this was every day? And what if your ability to manage them was the difference between life and death?

For a doctor in Intensive Care this is part of the job. Fear in the eyes of a terminally ill patient who pleads with you to not let them die. Grief when you make a potentially fatal mistake. Disgust at caring for a convicted rapist. But there are also moments of joy, like the rare bright spots of lucidity for a dementia patient, or when the ward unexpectedly breaks into song.

Dr Aoife Abbey shows us what a doctor sees of humanity as it comes through the revolving door of the hospital and takes us beyond a purely medical perspective. Told through seven emotions, Seven Signs of Life is about what it means to be alive and how it feels to care for a living.

About this title

About the Author

Aoife Abbey grew up in Dublin, Ireland. She completed an undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences at the University of Edinburgh, before graduating in 2011 from medical school at Warwick University. She is a member of the Royal College of Physicians, Fellow of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine and council member at the Intensive Care Society UK. From September 2016, Aoife Abbey wrote a blog under the guise of the British Medical Association’s 'Secret Doctor’. This is her first book.

Edition details

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 178470945X
• ISBN 13: 9781784709457
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 288