Life and Death in Intensive Care (not for the faint hearted)

"How does one twist her brain around the situation of a man, admitted beacause of an automobile accident (MVA), who is HIV positive with seriousrenal disease, previously treated by the Veteran's Administration, who now rufuses all future responsibility for him? How about a young man found with crack cocaine in his blood and multiple gunshot wounds, who had buckshot in his body from a previous incident? Or a schizophrenic burn patient who had poured gasoline on herself and set it on fire and who, some years earlie, had been found not guilty by reason of insanity of an attempt to cut the throat of her three-year-old? Or a woman, on the way to her mother's house to attend a birthday party for her son, whose car was hit by a truck , killing her boyfriend and two of her three children? Or an 85-year-old MVA victim, who the doctors say is "doing well", which means she can be released into a nursing home? Is that doing well? Who decides what is a "good result"?

(from "Life and Death in Intensive Care" by Joan Cassell)

While researching for an essay this week, I stumbled across this book. Im only a few pages in, but the stories are intoxicating. As much as I am (a little) terrified of what's around the corner for me in nursing, this is actually making me more excited by the day. To have some sort of input, to invest in some way into someone's life when their worst moments are realised....isn't that something worth getting excited for?

Pumped.