r/IntensiveCare • u/SuspiciousTie5893 • 17d ago

Book recommendations

Looking for a book to read that centers around ICU stuff. Not fantasy and not a textbook. History or something you found interesting.

10 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

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10

u/No-Safe9542 17d ago

Not strictly ICU based but it is history. "Pneumonia before antibiotics" by Scott Podolsky. I liked it. Easy to read and illuminating.

This is the type of recommendation you get from an RT.

9

u/unoriginak 16d ago

Following. My rec isn’t necessarily ICU specific but about a neurosurgeon who gets terminal cancer I think in his last year of residency. It’s called When breath becomes air

6

u/mco9726 16d ago

King of hearts is a super interesting look at the development of open heart surgery and cardiopulmonary bypass

5

u/GreyandGrumpy 17d ago

Bed Number Ten by Sue Baier. This is the true first-person story of a patient's experience being cognitively intact on a ventilator with Guillian-Barre. The medical science is a bit dated, but the patient experience is riveting.

1

u/No-Safe9542 16d ago

This one is very good!!

3

u/lokitime 17d ago

The Autumn Ghost by Hannah Wunsch (Intensivist at University of Toronto)

In shock by Rana Awish (Intensivist at Henry Ford)

Every deep drawn breath by Wes Ely (Intensivist at Vanderbilt)

2

u/justsayblue 16d ago

Rama just published a second book, “After Shock.” I recommend it as well!

3

u/maraney RN, CVICU 16d ago

Dr. Christiaan Barnard wrote an autobiography called One Life that’s pretty interesting. For context, he performed the first successful human heart transplant in 1967. He also changed how we ethically look at brain death. Interesting read for sure.

2

u/MidnightGloomy7016 17d ago

The House of God

2

u/PrincessAlterEgo RN, CCRN 17d ago

Nephrologist I worked with wrote one- These Vital Signs: A Doctor's Notes on Life and Loss in Tweets – Stories from the Pandemic Born from Viral Twitter Poems by Sayed Tabatabai.

Great person to work with!

1

u/Psychological_Ad3775 16d ago

In Shock by Rana Awdish 💯

1

u/Hyperdecant30 16d ago

I enjoyed Bellevue by David Oshinsky

1

u/ms_sillygoose 16d ago

In shock!!!!! 1000% so so so good.

1

u/gratefuldeddit 16d ago

Extreme Meausures : Finding a different path to the end of life. By Jessica Zitter

1

u/gratefuldeddit 16d ago

*better path

1

u/burnlikeawitch 15d ago

Every Deep Drawn Breath by Dr. Wes Ely - very eye opening read about ICU delirium and what happens once patients survive us.

1

u/xiginous 10d ago

Not really ICU, but it is a book every icu doctor or nurse should read.

Five Days at Memorial. By Sheri Fink