By Aoife Abbey.
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"In intensive care, grief often needs to start before a heart stops."
Aoife Abbey’s Seven Signs of Life offers a raw and deeply personal exploration of the emotional toll of working in an Intensive Care Unit, framed through the lens of seven universal emotions: fear, grief, anger, joy, distraction, disgust, and hope.
As someone who worked across emergency care, palliative care, and neonatal intensive care during the pandemic, I found myself moved by Abbey’s ability to articulate the complex emotional spectrum of life on the frontline. The book is unflinching in its honesty, shedding light on both the profound connections and the moral ambiguities that come with the role.
Abbey’s storytelling is at its best when it captures the deeply human moments: the hope of a family clinging to good news, the heartbreak of lives lost too soon, and the resilience of both patients and medical staff in the face of overwhelming odds.
Her reflections on the psychological demands of caring for critically ill patients provide an important insight into the often unseen cost of caregiving. The balance of grief and joy, despair and hope, is carefully woven throughout, creating an intimate portrayal of life in the ICU.
However, the book’s structure can feel disjointed, and the pacing occasionally falters. The framework of organising stories around emotions is a unique approach, but it sometimes leads to repetition and a lack of narrative cohesion. In many ways, the material might have been better suited to a running blog or a series of essays, allowing each story to stand alone while maintaining the emotional impact. At times, the reflections felt stretched to fit the longer format of a book, which diluted some of the power of Abbey’s anecdotes.
That said, the book still holds immense value as a medical memoir. For readers who enjoy authentic and heartfelt insights into the challenges of healthcare, this book captures the essence of what it means to care for a living. It is a reminder of the humanity behind the statistics, of the emotions that healthcare professionals navigate daily, and of the resilience required to face life and death head-on.
While the book may not be perfect, it remains a touching and important contribution to the growing body of literature that shines a light on the realities of modern medicine. For anyone seeking to understand the emotional labour behind critical care, or for those who have walked a similar path, Abbey’s work offers a poignant and relatable perspective.
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