Catch Your Breath

One of my best friends recently called me after his wife gave birth in hospital, telling me about their anesthesiologist. “They’re just fantastic! Then I remembered, Ed you’re an anesthesiologist…f*cking hell! I can’t believe that…”. I like to think I’m an inspiration to all budding doctors that anything is achievable. Ed is a sleepless anesthesiologist. His shifts involve snatching five-minute lunch breaks in the staff bathrooms, navigating emergencies and living with the all too terrifying sense of responsibility. And that was before Coronavirus arrived, which quickly turned his job into a nightmare queue of struggling with ill-fitting PPE, balancing staff shortages and intubating Covid-19 patients who can’t breathe on their own. Hilariously funny and moving, Catch Your Breath follows Ed’s journey from bewildered medical student in Aberdeen to unflinching anesthesiologist on the NHS frontline. It offers a unique insight into life on the hospital wards during the pandemic, while also sharing the hope that we will all get through this.