Cook County ICU Audiobook By Cory Franklin MD cover art

Cook County ICU

30 Years of Unforgettable Patients and Odd Cases

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Cook County ICU

By: Cory Franklin MD
Narrated by: John Pruden
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Filled with stories of strange medical cases and unforgettable patients culled from a 30-year career in medicine, Cook County ICU offers listeners a peek into the inner workings of a hospital. Author Cory Franklin, MD, who headed the hospital's intensive care unit from the 1970s through the 1990s, shares his most unique and bizarre experiences, including the deadly Chicago heatwave of 1995, treating the first AIDS patients in the country before the disease was diagnosed, the nurse with rare Munchausen syndrome, the only surviving ricin victim, and the professor with Alzheimer's hiding the effects of the wrong medication. Surprising, darkly humorous, heartwarming, and sometimes tragic, these stories provide a big-picture look at how the practice of medicine has changed over the years, making it a must-listen for patients, doctors, and anyone with an interest in medicine.

©2015 Cory Franklin (P)2016 Tantor Americas History & Commentary Medical Medicine & Health Care Industry Policy & Administration Professionals & Academics State & Local United States Medicine Health Care Witty Heartfelt Intensive Medicine

Critic reviews

"Franklin provides an excellent firsthand perspective on life in the medical trenches." ( Booklist)
Interesting Stories • Engaging Anecdotes • Excellent Narration • Entertaining Accounts • Memorable Patient Cases
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The stories themselves were interesting but this guy clearly thinks quite a bit of himself. A lot of it felt very “look at me” for example, going on and on about how he would dare venture into a black neighborhood to go to a funeral. It gave me the ick and I would not recommend it at all.

Interesting stories but hard to get past the ego

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I enjoyed it but did not appreciate how they leave out respiratory therapists completely. How many doctors get ABGs? Cause I’ve never seen one get one ever.

Enjoyable

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Good listening book... Would recommend to everyone. Good insight into the world of a doctor!

Good Read

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The anecdotes could use humor but he favored accuracy over embellishment. Chapter 10 was LOL for me, a typical patient history experience. If you get bored, skip to the last chapter as his conclusions are invaluable.

Like most all doctors, he forgets to discuss health care and discusses only medical care. The realm of Public Health includes preventive care which is highly discouraged nowadays. It’s hard to monetize prevention and it causes much lost revenue to the medical industry downstream. Whereas rescue medicine has progressed rapidly, nutritional healthcare has digressed and devolved. A century ago, countries competed and cooperated to stop nutritional deficiencies which caused much illness and lost life. By the 1980s, organized medicine along with the Food and Drug Industry decided that nutritional and Vitamin D deficiency perpetuated and accelerated diseases that they profited from and have ever since discouraged doctors (etc) from helping patients prevent deficiencies. Hence, the hard won gains of the first half century more than eroded. Food Industry intentionally strips nutrients from processed food and sneaks in empty and high glycemic calories (hint: flour is even worse than sugar) to fatten our livers. Some of this can be easily fixed individually with Vitamin D and vitamin and mineral supplements after self education. (Especially Magnesium and possibly zinc, chromium. Calcium, potassium and maybe iron are often low but should be in food.). Much more can be improved with the complex process of learning to eat well. And of course, stop staring at this screen, get outside and exercise.

Kinda dry, a few highlights and 1 missed point

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This book kept me waiting for the next story or encounter. Enjoyed hearing about some of the more unique people he encountered. I do wish this time line was more present I felt like I never knew his age or where he was in his career but nonetheless it was a figurative page turner.

Good listen and good stories

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I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The author had a good sense of humor and also made serious and educated comments on the not so funny situations. Very well written and the narrator was excellent.

Cook County ICU

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Not only was it interesting to listen to but it was informal history of medicine during the past 50 years. It might have been more meaningful to me in that I live in the Chicago area but it did relate to medicine as practiced in some of the other large cities as well.

Fascinating book by an intensive care doctor

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I enjoyed the author’s candor,humor and the slightly veiled criticism of his views of the evolution of the medical field/industry. Truly enjoyed the writing.

Fascinating insight into the medical world

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Great read, i binge-listened from cover to cover! The narrator did a good job!

Very entertaining!

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Good, thought provoking book. Great stories that will make you laugh, cry and ponder about the state of medicine. I truly enjoyed it!

Interesting!!!

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