Intensive Care: Facing the Critical Choices

Briefly sketches the history of intensive care units, describes actual cases, and discusses the medical, ethical, legal, moral, and economic problems that can arise

Intensive Care Unit chief Raffin, with science writer Shurkin and the Reverend Sinkler, an anesthesiologist, here set out to clarify the intimidating equipment and procedures of the ICU. But their litany of unhappy statistics and potential health complications makes initial chapters alarming reading for patients or loved ones in search of encouragement. Though they provide summaries of the ICU's various support systems, the authors' true purpose is to argue the right to die. In later chapters, anecdotal and legal case histories illustrate the virtues of "a dignified and peaceful death" when even the most heroic measures are doomed to fail. The authors make an intelligent, stirring case for allowing patients and their relativesguided by "living wills" and compassionate physiciansto determine when to cease medical support that merely prolongs suffering or postpones the death of a body whose spirit is gone. But this message, particularly when presented in the guise of an introduction to ICUs, is not needed by ICU patients with positive prognoses.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Intensive care unit (ICU) treatment is an intimidating, mysterious, and costly experience for many patients. Using actual case histories, this book describes what occurs in an ICUthe different illnesses treated there, the uses of technology, and the roles of health care personnel. The authors discuss the life-saving capabilities of ICU care, and also address the ethical and moral issues, such as the patient's right to dignified death, and the ethical withdrawal of life support. Accessible, well-written, and compassionate, this is recommended for public and patient libraries. Judith Eannarino, George Washington Univ. Lib., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.