Seven Signs of Life: Stories from an Intensive Care Doctor

by Aoife Abbey

Grief. Anger. Joy. Fear. Distraction. Disgust. Hope.

All emotions we expect to encounter over our lifetime.
But what if this was every day?
And what if your ability to manage them was the difference between life and death?

For a doctor in Intensive Care this is part of the job. Fear in the eyes of a terminally ill patient who pleads with you to not let them die. Grief when an elderly person dies alone. Disgust at having to care for a convicted rapist. But there’s also the hope found in the resilience of a family and the joy that comes with a meaningful connection with a patient, however fleeting it may be.

These real stories reveal what a doctor sees of humanity as it comes through the revolving door of the hospital. Told through seven emotions that we can all empathise with, this book from the British Medical Association’s own Secret Doctor gives us a unique window onto the other side of a hospital experience, showing us how it feels to care for a living.

Genres: Nonfiction, Medicine, Medical, Memoir, Science, Health, Autobiography

274 pages, Hardcover

Published February 7, 2019

About the author

Aoife Abbey grew up in Dublin, Ireland. She completed an undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences at the University of Edinburgh, before graduating in 2011 from medical school at Warwick University. She is a member of the Royal College of Physicians, Fellow of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine and council member at The Intensive Care Society UK.

Reviews

[Petra X · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is divided into chapters entitled by emotions, Grief. Anger. Joy. Fear. Distraction. Disgust. Hope. It seems to be an attempt to explain what actually being a doctor feels like. That it isn't 'just a job' but one that totally involves the person. Stories illustrate each of the emotions and they are involving and, to some extent, engendered the emotions in me as well, although even if they didn't I could identify why the doctor and patient felt the way they did.

The book is very well written and an interesting and unique addition to all the doctor stories I like to read.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting read but the way it was split up didn't really appeal to me personally compared to other books in the same genre - more like the seven emotions of life than the seven signs - 6/10.

[Roisin Healy · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are a lot of medical memoirs out there, but not as beautifully written as this.

[Juniper · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is a very thoughtful and compassionate book. it would pair very well with The Language of Kindness: A Nurse's Story - they reminded me much of each other, and the both have very respectful hearts at the centre of their storytelling.

[Mani · Rating 2 out of 5]

Actual rating: 2.5 Stars

Recently I’ve been really enjoying reading Medical memoirs, so when I saw The Seven Signs of Life at the library I knew I had to pick it up.

The Seven Signs of Life is such a short book, with just over 270 pages, and technically it shouldn’t have taken me long to finish book, but unfortunately I struggled with this one. There were some very interesting things in the book. But generally, I found it to be a bit of a slow and heavy read. At times I thought it was a little depressing.

Although this book didn’t work for me, I still think the work the doctors and nurses do in the NHS is wonderful and they are never credited or appreciated enough for all the hard work they do.

[Christina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gillade inte upplägget. Varje kapitel hanterar ett ”livstecken”. Dessa är: sorg, ilska, glädje, rädsla, distraktion, äckel och hopp. O...k? Fattar att det behövdes något sorts ramverk att fästa Abbeys anekdoter på, men tyckte detta var en krystad lösning och hade mycket hellre sett texten skriven som exempelvis dagboksanteckningar. Själva anekdoterna är starka och välvalda. Däremot är Abbeys filosoferande kring händelserna på gränsen till banalt. Hennes liknelse Schrödingers katt/Schrödingers patient är så otroligt förutsägbar och tråkig att jag kommer på mig själv med att inte ens aktivt läsa stycket. Jag bara skummar texten för att komma vidare. Detta sker vid ett flertal tillfällen. Varje kapitel inleds dessutom med ett citat om ”livstecknet” i fråga. Samtliga citat är så lökiga och basic att det känns som om Abbey har googlat ”sorg + citat” och copypasteat första bästa sökresultat.
Går ifrån den här läsupplevelsen med känslan av att inte ha lärt mig något nytt. Men den får ändå 2,5 av 5 i slutbetyg, för jag förväntade mig inte heller något stort av den. Jag ville bara läsa något som kunde distrahera från nyhetsflödet - och där lyckades denna lättlästa och stundtals gripande bok leverera.

[Amy Lee]

DNF - Finally admitting to myself I’m not going to finish this. It’s not bad per se, but I’m fully not the audience. Would recommend if you or someone you know is interested in entering the medical field

[Sophy H · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I need to stop reading books like these as they are too much of a busman's holiday!

The writing is great and the stories probably gripping if you haven't worked in health care but I find them all too familiar now.

Nevertheless, a good show from Aoife Abbey and her honesty is appreciated.

[Oonagh Considine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked it at the start and then I got bored! I was hoping it would get better again.?

[Lainy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Time taken to read - 2 days

Pages - 274

Publisher - Vintage

Source - Bought

Blurb from Goodreads

'A sensitive, honest, unsentimental and, yes, brave piece of writing that makes for compulsive reading'
Nigella Lawson

Grief. Anger. Joy. Fear. Distraction. Disgust. Hope. All emotions we expect to encounter over our lifetime.

But what if this was every day? And what if your ability to manage them was the difference between life and death?

For a doctor in Intensive Care this is part of the job. Fear in the eyes of a terminally ill patient who pleads with you to not let them die. Grief when you make a potentially fatal mistake. Disgust at caring for a convicted rapist. But there are also moments of joy, like the rare bright spots of lucidity for a dementia patient, or when the ward unexpectedly breaks into song.

Dr Aoife Abbey shows us what a doctor sees of humanity as it comes through the revolving door of the hospital and takes us beyond a purely medical perspective. Told through seven emotions, Seven Signs of Life is about what it means to be alive and how it feels to care for a living.



My Review



I have bought a fair few true life accounts of people working in healthcare, true stories so far by nurses and doctors. Seven Signs of Life is by an intensive care doctor, Aoife, going through what life as a doctor is like. We go through different stages of her career and meet an abundance of patients and situations she has had to deal with.

These kind of books are so important, I feel, so we can appreciate how horrific and amazing the situations can be, the work these guys carry out. Healthcare professionals work in all different environments - The War Doctor book I read I am still traumatised just reading of the conditions and horror humans are facing abroad. You can work in a clinic and never be exposed to what a paramedic sees or someone working in a mental health facility, a prison and in this book intensive care. Each professional will see and experience things others working in a different health care setting never will see/experience.

These books are so emotive because every story (despite names/details changed so noone can be identified) is a human being, a family - someone touched by tragedy, loss a health scare. I don't imagine anyone can read these types of books and not be moved and have an appreciation for the service we have. 3.5/5 for me this time - depending on your past and what you have experienced/lost some of the book may be emotional for you.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was fine, an interesting perspective on what it’s like to be an ICU doctor.

[Robert Kirwan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. A very factual and realistic account of what being a Doctor is. I think the thing that resonated with me most was at the end of the book. The author wonders how to explain what being a doctor is like to others. She ends up describing the job as one that you “feel” everything which I totally agree with. You feel every emotion under the sun on a regular basis.

One critique I had about this book was that some of the stories seemed to chop and change. The layout of the pages didn’t lend to chopping and changing between different patients stories. That is a mild complaint though.

Overall this is a truthful and genuine look at the profession. It’s more real that Henry Marsh’s “Do no harm” and certainly doesn’t come with any of the bravado which I think lends to the honesty in the stories and makes this a very satisfying read.

It’s very telling that the author was a blogger before this. She has a gorgeous way with words and really describes situations with feeling which ties in very well with the set-up of each chapter and what I felt she wanted to convey.

Great read and very enjoyable

[Vysh · Rating 4 out of 5]

"If I am honest, little of what I learned in medical school actually prepared me for my role in these situations, but there are some things that you just have to commit to learning as you go along"

Okay I LOVED how it was written but that's because I'm me and I like peppering poetry into things that aren't about poetry, also the separating into feelings was really easy to read and sort stories. I felt it was different from other medicine books in that I think all their patients die - maybe that's more real? maybe it's just trying to make a accurate general picyure of medicine when combined with other books? I don't know but I reccomend even if you're not STEM. Someone also said it pairs well with The Language Of Kindness: A Nurse's Story and I agree I read them pretty much back to back and now I am feeling very introspective

[lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a doctor currently on rotation in the ICU, I found myself in so many parts of this book and the experiences described here and that was immensely comforting. I recommend this book to everyone. Intensive care is scary because the only time you come into contact with it is when you or your loved ones need it. And maybe this book will make it easier to see “the other side”, our side. What intensive care means not just for the patients, but also for the healthcare professionals working in it. And that it’s not always about saving lives, but almost always about much more than that.

[Phoenix Perpetuale · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an incredible example of what doctors are facing daily in their jobs.
Humanity is showed in every doctor actions. And we also can see from the patient's point of view. They are only humans after all. And doctors are too. It is not spruce that they are professionals, but as humans, they also have to work on themselves.
I would recommend to read it for everyone to have a glimpse of a doctors life.

[Pamela Shropshire · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the things I have learned about myself in the past couple of years is that I enjoy the odd little sub genre of medical memoirs. I had never before read one by an intensivist, I.e. a doctor who specializes in intensive care medicine. The intensive care unit is where the most seriously ill patients are admitted and consequently, I would think one of the services with the highest death rate. I didn’t look up the statistics, but that seems logical.

Since the pandemic, I’ve thought a lot about death. It seemed that every week someone I knew died, often more than one “someone,” and that went on for months. For most of human history, that would not be unusual. But in the early decades of the 21st-century, our relationship — at least for privileged developed countries like my own US — with Death had grown a bit distant.

The title refers to the seven functions of a living being. Dr Abbey states: All of the things that we call ‘living’ share, at the most basic level, this collection of traits: movement, respiration, sensitivity to their surroundings, growth, reproduction, processes of excretion and the utilisation of nutrition. However, Dr Abbey’s title has a dual meaning as shown by the 7 chapter titles: Fear, Grief, Joy, Distraction, Anger, Disgust, Hope; all common human emotions that Dr Abbey relates to through herself and her patients. This is the framework for her stories.

4 stars.

[Mook Woramon · Rating 3 out of 5]

มันน่าจะสนุกได้มากกว่านี้ แต่อ่านไม่สนุกเพราะสำนวนแปลนี่แหละ บางประโยคจับใจความที่จะสื่อไม่ได้เลย

ผู้เขียนเป็นแพทย์เฉพาะทางเวชบำบัดวิกฤต เนื้องานก็ตามชื่อเลยคือดูแลผู้ป่วยวิกฤตที่อยู่ระหว่างความเป็น-ความตาย
แน่นอนเครียดมากแน่ ๆ ลุ้นทุกวินาทีคนไข้จะดีขึ้นหรือแย่ลง ไหนจะความคาดหวังที่กดทับลงมา แต่มันก็จะมีเรื่องราวดี ๆ ถ้าสามารถยื้อชีวิตคนไข้กลับมาได้หรือถ้าไม่ได้ก็ช่วยให้คนไข้จากไปอย่างสงบสมศักดิ์ศรีความเป็นมนุษย์ได้

ผู้เขียนแบ่งเรื่องเล่าตามความรู้สึก ความกลัว ความโศกเศร้า ความสุขใจ ความฟุ้งซ่าน ความโกรธ ความขยะแขยง ความหวัง
แต่รู้สึกว่าเรื่องเล่าอาจจะไม่ได้สัมพันธ์กับหัวข้อซักเท่าไหร่ เรื่องราวของคนไข้หนึ่งคนมันหลากหลายความรู้สึกจนอาจจะแบ่งแยกตามอารมณ์ชัดเจนไม่ได้
กับไม่รู้ทำไมอ่านแล้วรู้สึกว่าแฝงความสิ้นหวัง ซึมเศร้าเบา ๆ แต่พอเข้าใจได้ ดู ๆ แล้วระบบ NHS อังกฤษก็ป่วยคล้าย ๆ กับไทย เฮ้อ เหนื่อยแทน

🩺 อ่านจบได้อะไร 🩺

- อย่าลืมว่าคนไข้เป็นมนุษย์ อย่ามัวแต่รักษาโรค รักษาศักดิ์ศรีความเป็นมนุษย์ด้วย
- อย่าลืมว่าหมอเป็นมนุษย์ ย่อมมีโอกาสทำผิดพลาดได้เช่นกัน สิ่งสำคัญคือเรียนรู้อะไรจากความผิดพลาดนั้น

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy most medical memoirs I read, and I think each of the books gives us more insight into our own lives and health. Aoife Abbey is an Intensive Care doctor involved in helping patients at some of the scariest times of their lives as they often face life or death choices. Her compassion and humanity come across strongly in this book as she helps patients and their families and I admire some of the quiet moments when she has sat by a bedside to hold a patients hand.

The only thing I do find a bit conflicting about this genre is that the author often has to change parts of the story about patients in order to make them unidentifiable to the reader, yet it is these stories that are at the core of the book. Still it reassures me to know that there are such kind and perceptive people specializing in this field of medicine.

[Khushi · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Being a doctor is not about changing the world, but about making a difference to one person's world for a moment."

Abbey takes us through her journey as a doctor in a space that effectively hangs between both life and death - ICU. The striking element is the intensity, complexity and the vast array of emotions she encounters on a day to day basis, despite that many of the patients she treats are largely sedated or unconscious under her care and are often unable to even recognise her.

"Primum non nocere - First, do no harm." This quote particularly struck me as I came to realise the burden of hope and expectations of patients and their loved ones that doctors seem to carry so effortlessly and how managing these falls under the principle of doing no harm.

This book was truly humbling.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seven signs of live is a raw and honest memoir of the day to day work of an intensive care senior registrar. This is not sugar coated, it's not funny, it's about the hard work and the strain on your mental health when dealing with death and grieving relatives. This is really easy to read and quick. The author puts in foot notes for the terminology that the normal human being may not be familiar with. This book will make you stand back and appreciate what doctors do for us and how it effects them aswell. And sometimes when you think that they might not have enough compassion, they have conditioned themselves to not absorb your grief for their own mental health and so that they can go on treating other patients.

[Kristi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was not quite what I expected ... it was mostly about the emotions felt by the author, an intensive care doctor in the UK. I wanted more details about the anecdotal stories she told, but I should have realized this was not a medical textbook in any way shape, or form. I think it would have been possible to fictionalize enough information to keep the patients’ identities safe and provide more medical details. Some of the doctor and other healthcare worker titles and terminology are strikingly different from those used in the US. I’d never heard of a night sister before, for example.

[0206 · Rating 2 out of 5]

คือตอนเเรกนี่hypeมาก อยาดได้เล่มนี้มากต้องสั่งมาเลย อ่านเเล้วง่วงอะ ไม่รู้ว่าเพราะเนื้อหาหรืออ่านตอนง่วงๆ อยากนอนมาก ไม่มีอะไรน่าสนใจ ทุกอย่างก็คือเกี่ยวกับหมอรักษาคนไข้ที่กำลังจะตายวนๆไปนี่อ่านไปเกือบครึ่งเเล้วยังเหมือนเดิม… นี่คือดองไว้ อ่านเเล้วเเตาพักก่อนไปตอนกับเล่มอื่นมาสองเล่มเเล้วมั้ง คือไม่รู้สึกอยากอ่านต่อเลยอ่า นอยอ่า เเต่เอาจริงมันก็ไม่ได้เเยาขนาดนั้นช่วงที่ดีก็มี อย่างเช่นเวลาอ่านมันจะไม่น่าเบื่อขนาดนั้นเพราะหนังสือมันจะมีเเบบ คล้ายๆquoteไม่รู้เรียกได้มั้ยคั่นตรงกลางเเละก็คำต่างๆนู้นนี่ไม่ได้มีเเต่บทบรรยายอย่างเดียว ไม่ค่อยตรงจริตง่ะ

[Maddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was so validating and reassuring reading this book. I can relate to many of the scenarios described in this book and Dr Abbey’s insight and thoughts really made me think and reflect on my own experiences and practice. A hard-hitting book highlighting the challenges of intensive care medicine but at the same time, demonstrates something warning that makes me proud to work in such an environment.

[Inger-Johanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I work as an interpreter and regularly work in the communication between the medical staff and patients and their families. Interpreting in such situations can be a delicate matter and I feel I have to strive to convey the concise nuance in the message. I had a lot of my theories and hunches confirmed when I read this book. It provides the doctor's perspective, and it felt valuable to me to learn more about that point of view.

[EAJohnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting insightful. Though somehow th observations were quite remote so not easy to finish the book.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoughtful and beautiful exploration of the emotions of a critical care doctor and of life in general. I gained some insight into my own life by reading this.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed The Secret Doctor; we get a range of anecdotes, humours tidbits, and factual information and I felt it was all sliced together well and didn't lean too heavy either way. Abbey has a good style of writing and is clearly passionate about her job which bled through the pages. It definitely made me tear up at times but is definitely one i'd want on my shelves!

[eleanor · Rating 4 out of 5]

i really enjoyed how this book was set out, i think it organised it in a way i’ve never seen before so really set itself apart from others in the genre. the narrator had a great balance of humour and seriousness given the subject matter- a great addition to the genre

[Lydia Richards · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm very much lost for words in terms of how I can describe this book. Stunningly written, and a breath of fresh air in comparison to the horror stories you hear about the NHS and its state that inundate modern media. My favourite book of this year so far.

[Ellie Flinton · Rating 4 out of 5]

An audible listen to satisfy my medical nerdy brain.
I found this one of the most educating and honest books that has come from a doctor in the hospital medical field. Coming from intensive care this book is not one that ends in happiness and recovery - quite the opposite as is true in this field of medicine. It should almost certainly come with trigger warnings for those who struggle to read about death and dying and its worth mentioning it touches on very sensitive subjects such as suicide and cancer.
I found the way she spoke about the emotional side of practice excellent and parts of it even made me reflect on my own practice.