As the annual crisis in hospital bed availability fast approaches, we can, say experts, look forward to a new record being set in the numbers clogging up emergency departments. It is bad news for patients – research published earlier this year found that for those who were delayed waiting to be admitted by more than 6-8 hours in emergency departments, death rates increased.
Overcrowded emergency departments are difficult places to be stuck in for any length of time- and not just for patients and their families. It requires a battle-hardened attitude for doctors, nurses, receptionists and others to turn up for work each day. It is difficult to offer quality, holistic care for patients in these circumstances.
It is uplifting to read a new book by US emergency room (ER) physician, Dr Jay Baruch, who shows how empathy, creativity and imagination can still be found in acute clinical care. In “Tornado of Life”, he offers a series of short, powerful and affecting essays that capture the stories of ER patients in all their complexity.
The book brings the reader into the chaos of a US emergency department, which suffers the strains we are familiar with in hospitals in Ireland. Using patient stories, the author gets the reader to reflect on how it is still possible for patients to receive compassionate care amid the maelstrom of urgent medicine.
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We read about Cheryl, in ER because of a heroin dose and whose story is a narrative of chaos, telling Baruch she is “stuck in a tornado of life”. He describes the emergency of loneliness and the patient who demanded a hug. In a story about Jill L, a well-dressed woman who comes to the ER late one Saturday night with vague symptoms that at first don’t add up, Baruch admits to not picking up cues that she was a victim of domestic abuse.
“The practice of medicine is nuanced and oblique. It needs personalities willing to take fully authentic breaths. Better technology won’t necessarily replace what humans need from each other: the promise of connection,” he says.
His book is a testament to the need for patients to be listened to in our badly overcrowded emergency departments.
