Every Deep-Drawn Breath

A Critical Care Doctor on Healing, Recovery, and Transforming Medicine in the ICU

Wes Ely

• Publisher: Scribner
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781982171162
• eBook ISBN: 9781982171179
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Medicine Biographies

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Author’s Note
• Prologue
• Chapter 1: Fractured Lives—Embracing a New Normal
• Chapter 2: Early History of Critical Care—Bumpy Gravel Roads to ICU Interstates
• Chapter 3: Culture of Critical Care—The Era of Deep Sedation and Immobilization
• Chapter 4: The World of Transplant Medicine—Harvesting the Right Path Forward
• Chapter 5: Delirium Disaster—An Invisible Calamity for Patients and Families
• Chapter 6: The View from the Other Side of the Bed—Illness Revisited
• Chapter 7: Deciding My Path—Combining Research with Clinical Care
• Chapter 8: Unshackling the Brain—Finding Consciousness in the ICU
• Chapter 9: Awakening Change—Patients Are Resurfacing
• Chapter 10: Spreading the Word—Putting New Ideas into Practice
• Chapter 11: Finding the Person in the Patient—Hope through Humanization
• Chapter 12: End-of-Life Care in the ICU—Patient and Family Wishes Can Come True
• Epilogue
• Resources for Patients, Families, Caregivers, and Medical Professionals
• Books to Explore
• Acknowledgments
• Reading Group Guide
• About the Author
• Notes
• Index
• Copyright