Critical Care: A Novel

Dr. Peter Werner Ernst is an internal medicine resident at a major hospital's intensive care unit. He functions without sleep, sometimes for three days running. Overseeing the care of eight patients, Dr. Ernst's job is to keep death at bay--at least until the day shift comes on, and any potential death goes on someone else's record.When Felicia Potter enters the ward to visit her comatose father, Dr. Ernst sees the opportunity to spice up his grim routine with a little romance. What he cannot see is how his relationship with the young attractive model will call into question his integrity, his dedication to his career, and just how far he will go for the sake of his lust.Fueled by gallows humor, ringing with an insider's deep knowledge of the hospital universe, it captures the terrible isolation of a young doctor wrestling with his conscience as the jaws of the legal and medical establishments gradually close in on him.Not since The House of God has there been a book that affords such an unsparing and yet antic vision of the hidden world of a hospital house staff, their inhuman burdens, and the deadly humor that is their defense against despair.By turns phantasmagorical, terrifying, romantic, hilarious, and consistently provocative, this exceptional debut proclaims a writer to watch---and a profound statement that could not be more timely.