Life in the Balance

A Doctor’s Stories of Intensive Care

Dr Jim Down

$55

Hardback

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English

Viking
15 March 2023

Biography; Autobiography: science, technology & engineering; Health systems & services

A moving, frank and unflinching-yet-witty account of the realities of intensive care medicine from Dr Jim Down, ICU consultant at one of London's top hospitals

In these stories, Dr Jim Down brings us to the very heart of the intensive care unit - the section of the hospital where the sickest patients are brought to be cared for until their condition improves. With honesty, humility and a streak of dark humour, Dr Down describes the quietly heroic work of doctors and nurses on the ICU, a place which sits at the cutting edge of medical technology and where a split-second decision can make the difference between life and death.

From headline-grabbing cases like that of Alexander Litvinenko, poisoned by Russian agents and admitted to Down's ward, to the appalling aftermath of a train crash, and the mundane daily struggle to simply find enough beds, Jim Down provides a unique insight into life on The Unit, and the critical medicine doctors and nurses perform there.

Life in the Balance offers the first real glimpse of intensive care medicine, its immense challenges, deleterious effects on doctors' mental health and enormous rewards. Its profundity will make you reconsider the fragility of life and reframe your understanding of what it means to care.

By: Dr Jim Down
Imprint: Viking
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 223mm, Width: 145mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 365g
ISBN: 9780241506387
ISBN 10: 0241506387
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 15 March 2023
Audience: Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , General/trade , Undergraduate , Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Dr Jim Down is a consultant in critical care and anaesthesia based in London. He chairs the ICU consultants' group, the department of anaesthesia weekly scientific meetings and the UCLH Trust guideline committee. During the Covid-19 pandemic he worked on UCLH's busy ICU ward, and was interviewed by the BBC for a groundbreaking report depicting medics on the frontline. His account of that period, Life Support, was published in 2021 and his second book, Life in the Balance, was published in 2023.

Reviews for Life in the Balance: A Doctor’s Stories of Intensive Care

If Jim Down is as good a doctor as he is a writer, his patients are in very safe hands. Whether treating famous Russian spies, the victims of terrorist attacks, or people taken close to death by Covid, he shows us what it's really like to care for those who are clinging to life, and describes with unflinching honesty the toll that working in intensive care can take on his own mental health, and that of his colleagues. * Alistair Campbell * Life in the Balance made me think, weep and smile. [Jim is] a smart, wise and kind doctor in real life, and these characteristics shine through. Whoever you are, you should read this book. One in five of you will, at some point, need a Jim. * Hugh Montgomery, Professor of Intensive Care Medicine, University College London *