Every Deep-Drawn Breath
A Critical Care Doctor on Healing, Recovery, and Transforming Medicine in the ICU
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
Winner of a Christopher Award—now with a discussion guide
“Perhaps one lesson to draw from the pandemic, with help from books like this one, is that the ICU experience can be changed for the better” (The Washington Post) for both patients and their families. You will learn how in this timely, urgent, and compassionate work by a world-renowned critical care doctor.
In this rich blend of science, medical history, profoundly humane patient stories, and personal reflection, Dr. Wes Ely describes his mission to prevent ICU patients from being harmed by the technology that is keeping them alive. Readers will experience the world of critical care through the eyes of a physician who drastically changed his clinical practice to offer person-centered health care and through cutting-edge research convinced others to do the same.
Dr. Ely’s groundbreaking investigations advanced the understanding of post– intensive care struggles and introduced crucial changes that reshaped treatment: minimizing sedation, maximizing mobility, and providing supportive aftercare. Dr. Ely shows that there are ways to bring humanity into the ICU and that “technology plus touch” is a proven path toward returning ICU patients to the lives they had before their hospital stays. An essential resource for anyone who will be affected by illness—which is all of us.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ely, a critical care doctor, debuts with a remarkable look at transformations in ICU care. He opens with a confession—that he'd "sacrificed patient dignity and caused harm" as a young physician by trading "the priceless gift of eye contact and conversation for medically induced unconsciousness and...deep sedation." For years, the standard practice was to keep patients on ventilators heavily sedated, but Ely began questioning the protocol after encountering numerous patients who suffered from "post-intensive care syndrome" and whose cognitive functioning had been dramatically impaired by the length of time spent unconscious. Ely discovered doctors in the U.S. and abroad who'd adopted different approaches, including reducing the duration and level of sedation, and active measures to keep patients mentally engaged, which he began to implement. Ely movingly recounts his efforts, notably when his vision of an improved ICU was put into place in 2014 with rooms that "were spacious, practical, and filled with light... and included a comfortable area for family members or friends." And the revised, reduced-sedation "return to humanity" program, he writes, saves lives. This humble—and humbling—look at the limits and potential of medicine will stick with readers.
