You Can Stop Humming Now

Product Description

An intimate look at the border between sickness and health and life after survival, by a critical care doctor.An intimate look at the border between sickness and health and life after survival, by a critical care doctor.
Modern medicine is a world that glimmers with promising technology and cutting edge research. To the public, the stories begin with sirens and culminate in survival and death. But these are only the most visible narratives. As a critical care doctor treating people at their sickest in twelve-hour increments, Dr Daniela Lamas is fascinated by a different story - what is life like for the people who survive?

YOU CAN STOP HUMMING NOW begins with Lamas's memories of medical internship, when she replies to a Facebook friend request from a dying patient and became captivated by his photos of life before illness. From that starting point, Dr Lamas takes readers on a journey through the nether regions between sickness and health: men and women living with partial artificial hearts who must plug themselves into a wall socket each night; kidney transplant recipients who navigate life-long relationships with organ donors they found on Facebook; and young adults with cystic fibrosis who survive to adulthood they didn't think they would see. These are just some of the narratives of the people who come out the other side.

YOU CAN STOP HUMMING NOW will appeal to readers who are fascinated by medical advance, but, more broadly, the book should be read by anyone who is curious about the grey areas in medicine and the nuances of life after survival - readers who are willing to see the uncertainty, humanity and ultimately the great promise at the edge of modern medicine.