In Shock by Rana Awdish review – doctor turns patient

After coming close to death in her own hospital, a doctor perhaps protests too much at the language used by her lifesavers

In two thousand and something (we’re never given an idea of dates in the book, meaning we’re always slightly disoriented in time, as if we’re drifting in and out of a coma in intensive care), Dr Rana Awdish was admitted to the Detroit hospital she worked in and came pretty much as close as is possible to death. A mass in her liver ruptured during pregnancy, a vanishingly rare event, and her entire blood volume leaked into her abdomen. She very sadly lost her baby, required multiple major operations and went on to accumulate a royal flush of every imaginable medical complication, from septic shock to stroke.

Somehow, against gargantuan odds, she not only survived, but came out of this ordeal neurologically intact, and is now back working as a medic and educator. Dr Awdish’s telling of this story is tense, powerful and gripping, and her writing style is often nothing short of beautiful – evocative and emotional. I actually found some of it harrowing to read, being a former obstetrician who left the profession after a patient of mine had a similar “suicidal spiral of the blood”, but with an even more tragic outcome.

Continue reading... January 28, 2018 at 03:30PM