In this engrossing non-fiction book, Edward Sylvester leads us deep into the work of a new breed of doctor, the neurointensivist, at two of America's premier academic medical centers, Columbia's New York Presbyterian and Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. In both places, as he writes in the prologue, "People are the vital force. On this June day, they have just returned from lunch, to offices or college classrooms, or to resume household chores or go shopping for dinner. Not all of them will be alive next June."
"The neurological intensive care unit is at once an island of peace," Sylvester writes, "a clean well-lighted place, and a harbinger of dread, the next-to-last place you ever hope to be. The last place, of course, is in the situation that brought you through these doors. But if that is already a given, this is where you want to be taken, where you will most likely be rescued. And like so many great human creations, it was born out of necessity but built using all the determination, intellect, and stamina its founders could muster. It remains, as you will see, a monument to clashing wills, opposing visions, and what the devil or chance can wreak on the stage of the human brain."
Table of Contents
Author's Note
Prologue: Grand Rounds
Chapter 1: Wreckers Ball
Chapter 2: Going Under
Chapter 3: The Will to Die
Chapter 4: Bottom of the Night
Chapter 5: Fire and Flood
Chapter 6: A Model Universe
Chapter 7: Out of the Blue
Chapter 8: Luck
Chapter 9: Drive, Drive, Drive
Chapter 10: Labyrinths
Chapter 11: "Catherine is Dying"
Chapter 12: Lazarus
Epilogue: Once More
Index