Intensive Care: A Doctor's Journal

By John F. Murray

Book Overview

Intensive Care is an affecting view from the trenches, a seasoned doctor's minute-by-minute and day-by-day account of life in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of a major inner-city hospital, San Francisco General. John F. Murray, for many years Chief of the Pulmonary and Critical Care Division of the hospital and a Professor at the University of California, San Francisco, takes readers on his daily ward rounds, introducing them to the desperately ill patients he treats as well as to the young physicians and medical students who accompany him. Writing with compassion and knowledge accumulated over a long career, Murray presents the true stories of patients who show up with myriad disorders: asthma, cardiac failure, gastrointestinal diseases, complications due to AIDS, the effects of drug and alcohol abuse, emphysema. Readers will come away from this book with a comprehensive understanding of what an ICU is, what it does, who gets admitted, and how doctors and nurses make decisions concerning life-threatening medical problems.

Intensive care for critically ill patients is a new but well-established and growing branch of medicine. Estimates suggest that 15 to 20 percent of all hospitalized patients in the United States are treated in an intensive or coronary care unit during each hospital stay, so there is a real possibility that the reader will either be admitted to an ICU himself or herself or knows someone who will be. Murray not only offers a real-time account of the diagnosis, treatment, and progress of his patients over the course of one month but also conveys a wealth of information about various diseases and medical procedures in succinct and easy-to-understand terms. In addition, he elaborates on ethical dilemmas that he confronts on an almost daily basis: the extent of patient autonomy, the denial of ICU care, the withdrawal of life support, and physician-assisted suicide.

Murray concludes that ICUs are doing their job, but they could be even better, cheaper, and--most important--more humane. His chronicle brings substance to a world known to most of us only through the fiction of television.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520220897
• ISBN13: 9780520220898
• Release Date: July 2000
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 311 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.3" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

Time in the ICU

This book was great! Especially for anyone interested in a medical career. The book provides an overview of what took place during Dr. Murray's month as the attending doctor at a Medical ICU. It provides very detailed accounts of a number of cases. Some cases ended on a positive note, while others not so much. I would recommend this book. In fact, Dr. Murray is still practicing one month a year at this hospital!

An honest look at life in the ICU

As an ICU nurse, I am often disturbed by the average person's expectations when a family member is treated in our intensive care unit. Too often, we are expected to perform miracles when at best all we can do is delay the course of nature for a few days or weeks while the family adjusts to the concept that their loved one is dying. This is frequently at the expense of the patient who is subjected to a long and uncomfortable death. Dr. Murray paints a true to life picture of what happens in the ICU by providing a day by day journal covering four weeks at San Francisco General Hospital. He provides an enlightening view of critical care that is both compassionate and accurate. His writing style is easy to understand, and the stories he tells of each patient he meets are compelling. He covers all; the successes, the failures, and those in between. Dr. Murray also addresses the ethical dilemmas facing us today regarding self determination and the allocation of scarce resources. A must read if you really want to know what happens to your loved ones in the ICU.

Intensive Care A Doctor's Journal

This is a clear, honest look inside the world of ICU. Concise, well-written, without the glitz and exaggeration served up by commercial TV in shows such as ER. This gifted physician shares his world view and realistically portrays the complexity and stresses of the day to day operation of an urban intensive care unit. Don't look for sentimentality here, this is more in the realm of science. Good job.