Arpan K. Banerjee
Solihull, England
In his book Scars and Stains: Lessons from Intensive Care, Mark ZY Tan, a trained anesthetist and intensive care physician, tells stories of patients admitted to the ICU and the split-second clinical decisions and ethical dilemmas faced by the staff involved in their care. Although some of the stories are harrowing to read, Tan has not suffocated his prose with excessive or gory medical details, but manages to convey a humane approach to patient care in spite of the usual cliched scenarios faced in a mechanized and sometimes dehumanizing setting.
The book is divided into sections that reflect the principles of resuscitation, including airway, breathing, and circulation. There are additional sections on disability, primarily dealing with adverse neurological events, and exposure, addressing other traumas that are experienced by these patients.
Each chapter tells a story about a different patient, describing events and procedures ranging from cardiac arrest, emergency tracheostomy, complicated central line insertions, complex heart failure treatments, paralysis, grief, and emotional trauma. The final section covers the COVID pandemic and includes the author’s previously published prize-winning essays and transcripts of radio broadcasts.
The text is enhanced by references ranging from the work of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross to song lyrics. A particularly powerful quote was from Martin Luther King: “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.”
The author conveys a sense of what it is like to work with patients in an intensive care setting, which often conjures a sense of fear. The stories of patients from different backgrounds are beautifully told and help to demystify this important branch of medicine. Scars and Stains is a highly readable book that is suffused with humanity and compassion, which can be forgotten or overlooked in stressful and high-tech medical situations.
Scars and Stains: Lessons from Intensive Care
Mark Z.Y. Tan
Hawksmoor Publishing, 2024
ISBN-13:978-1914066528
DR. ARPAN K. BANERJEE qualified in medicine at St Thomas’s Hospital Medical School. London. He was a consultant radiologist in Birmingham 1995–2019. He was President of the radiology section of the RSM 2005–2007 and on the scientific committee of the Royal College of Radiologists 2012–2016. He was Chairman of the British Society for the History of Radiology 2012–2017. He is Chairman of ISHRAD. He is author/co-author of papers on a variety of clinical, radiological, and medical historical topics and eight books, including Classic Papers in Modern Diagnostic Radiology (2005) and The History of Radiology (OUP 2013).
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