Critical: science and stories from the brink of human life

'A very special book filled with stories of survival, hope and loss.' Adam Kay, author of This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor 'This book offers real insight into life and death medicine.' Dr. Michael Mosley 'Compassionate and moving... Morgan provides a rich array of stories and characters. Alongside the cases studies, he details the development of the medical practices and technology - from the iron lung to ultrasound - that have helped make such life-saving procedures possible.' The Observer 'This book is marvellous: buy it, share it, recommend it.... We are fortunate to have dedicated, caring and humble folks such as Doc Morgan on the Critical Care front line. We are even better off when a writer can capture all that this exciting, mad, glorious and even exasperating job means. If you work in healthcare, know somebody that does, or simply inhabit a body then this book is for you: in fact it's critical.' Peter Brindley, Professor of Critical Care Medicine, Anesthesiology, Medical Ethics University of Alberta 'Just wonderful. I love the exploration of what it means to survive, at what cost and so on. Such an important factor and it's a real problem with what we do. An old surgeon once told me 'just because we can, doesn't mean we should. Operating is the easiest thing in the world, not doing so is incredibly challenging'. A lovely book.' Dr Nikki Stamp FRACS Cardiothoracic and Transplant Surgeon and author of Can You Die of a Broken Heart? 'An illuminating, compassionate insight into the fascinating world of intensive care.' Leah Hazzard, author of Hard Pushed Critical is an intelligent, compelling and profoundly insightful journey into the world of intensive care medicine and the lives of people who have forever been changed by it. Being critically ill means one or more of your vital organs have failed - this could be your lungs, your heart, your kidneys, gut or even your brain. Starting with the first recognised case in which a little girl was saved by intensive care in 1952 in Copenhagen, Matt writes brilliantly about the fascinating history, practices and technology in this newest of all the major medical specialties. Matt guides us around the ICU by guiding us around the body and the different organs, and in this way, we learn not only the stories of many of the patients he's treated over the years, but also about the various functions different parts of the body. He draws on his time spent with real patients, on the brink of death, and explains how he and his colleagues fight against the odds to help them live. Happily many of his cases have happy endings, but Matt also writes movingly about those cases which will always remain with him - the cases where the mysteries of the body proved too hard to solve, or diagnoses came too late or made no difference to the outcome."