Life Support: Diary of an ICU Doctor on the Frontline of the Covid Crisis

I don't usually read this type of book as I find that many medics are not able to write for a layperson, in language that is both understandable and engaging. Jim Down has proved my prejudice incorrect. This is such an honest, engaging memoir that I would advise everyone to read if you want to understand the impact of Covid on both the doctors and other staff who care for us and gain an insight into the system in which they are working. I am finding it a page-turner and compulsive read. This is because Jim Down is a fine writer who allows the reader into his head and to experience the ICU from the inside looking out. I can't wait to see if Prof. Down turns his hand to fiction at some point.

This book has helped me make sense of what we have all just been through and continue to endure.I walked past the hospital often on my daily lockdown exercise and thought often of what was behind the shuttered windows.It is so well written in the way that he reveals himself so honestly as a person AND as a doctor in what truly feels like a war situation with all its courage and chaos. There is a careful balance of the medical technical terms, neither too academic nor simplistic.Lovely humour and care for the team and the patients with stories told with consideration and discretion. Never feels gratuitous or self serving.Loved it and on finishing it ,had it ripped from my hands by others eager to read it.

I loved this book. it reads with the pace of a thriller and is utterly engrossing.The author recounts with candour, humour and humanity the inner workings of an ITU department as it prepares for the terrifying wave of illness and death bought to London by COVID and its aftermath.He explains using real life examples how individual Doctors and Nurses coped with extraordinary bravery, self sacrifice and empathy towards their patients often paying high personal costs.I didn't want to the book to end and I will be looking out for any more books by this author in the future.

This book is beautifully written. It not only gave a thoughtful and intelligent insight of the covid crisis from the heart of a covid crisis center in the NHS. But it also took me on a roller coaster of emotions. It made me laugh, cry and feel actual relief - all the more real as it was written about genuine patients and the real problems NHS staff faced in the height of the first wave. Not easy read emotionally, but even better for it!

We all know how grateful we are to all the medical teams who have worked so hard looking after COVID patients, but few of us will really ever understand what it’s like to be on the wards day in day out. The highs, the lows, the emotions, the exhaustion, the dedication. This fascinating insight opens a window onto this world and makes me grateful every day to the people who devote their lives to medicine and trying to save lives.