Intensive Care

by Alan Sleator (Author), Alan Sleator (Author), Paddy Yeoman (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  1995

  $3.25

  The intensive-care unit (ICU) in any hospital is shrouded in mystery and driven by daily dramas, a world off-limits to most staff - and certainly to the public. It has an atmosphere in which the emotions evoked by death contrast with the joy experienced when a patient recovers. Deciding when not to treat a patient is one which ICU consultants make every day, in an environment where they know a third of the patients will die. Decisions they are forced to make often bring them into conflict with patients' relatives, and even their own colleagues. Through specific case histories and anecdotes, this book explores the constant practical, ethical and moral dilemmas faced by ICU staff. Tied to a six-part BBC1 television series, it shows how an ICU functions, and how decisions between life and death are made.