Catch Your Breath: The Secret Life of a Sleepless Anaesthetist

Product Information

He has performed across the UK, including at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and hosts the "Comedians' Surgery" podcast where he speaks to guests including Joe Lycett, Rose Matafeo and Reginald D Hunter about their health stories and experiences. Because it pushes away the darkest of thoughts, allows those facing what men and women like Ed Patrick did, to maintain some level of sanity. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. The book taught me that despite this, at times doctors do need to detach themselves from their emotions yet that is a much harder task than it seems, so being mentally strong is so important.

It reminded me that humour is the greatest tonic we have, that at it darkest it is the most healing, the more perverse, the more irrelevant the funnier it can be. They faced an emotional and physical threat and did so with little thought other than treating those most in need. Other things I've done include creating and presenting the pilot Infectious Personalities on BBC Radio 2, where my guests were Charlie Brooker and Sindhu Vee. As soon as I saw this book I knew I wanted to read it, the hardback copy is beautiful as it looks like a green medical box! Patrick's story, told with sincerity and a touch of humor, makes this book engaging and enlightening.Even the people, real people, come across as a bit flat; lots about his own mental and emotional challenges. His and his colleagues sense of humanity shines through and I can’t recommend this book enough to all of you. Catch Your Breath follows his work as an anaesthetist, navigating his way through emergencies, patients not breathing for themselves and living with a terrifying sense of responsibility. However, I HIGHLY recommend this book to people who like medical memoirs but aren’t anaesthetists themselves. I didn't really know much about what an anaesthetist did before reading this book, but I enjoy medical memoirs, so I'd thought I'd give it a read.

An example I would like to point out on page 121 is when an old lady is about to have a procedure done and the only thing that she requests is that her dentures be put to her side ready for her when she wakes up again as her family are unaware of the fact she has false teeth. Students thinking of studying medicine, medical students, and young doctors will also find this memoir engaging and insightful, and offer some perspective on their future plans. At the same time, perhaps that relatability is why I can’t give it a higher rating, yet I still recommend it to some readers. People like Ed Patrick looked to their colleagues for support, they took heart from messages left by those working outside of ICU “Good luck, ICU!

Accessible entry: Steep internal staircase consisting of 20 steps leading to the basement where The Lower Hall space is located. I recommend it, just maybe not for someone in the medical field as they might get more out of it than I did. He is cutting his teeth in anaesthetics, taking people as close to death as you can take them, and then trying to wake them up again. If anyone needs a reality check at just how much the NHS staff are under appreciated, this book will do it.