Catch Your Breath by Ed Patrick is a candid and self-deprecating memoir about the life and career of an anesthetist.

This is a funny and entertaining read. It is also heartwarming. The author has got the right mix of funny and serious. It’s a quick read. Great for fans of medical memoirs

I really enjoyed this book. It gave an insight into what it takes and the training to become an Anaesthetist. It was an insight into his working life along with some funny bits.

Told with candour and humour Patrick relays his story of becoming an anaesthetist, and working during the time of the Covid 19 pandemic. We learn about the UK medical system. Patrick is also a stand-up comedian he sees plenty of humour in everyday situations and even himself. This book will make you smile and laugh and appreciate the work that goes into becoming a doctor and how hard it was during the pandemic.


Thank you #netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Brilliant read!
Heartbreakingly funny.
A junior doctors memoir of progressing through his career, leeping into covid and coming out the other side!

Loved the authenticity of the author

I'm unable to read this book: it says it's available in epub but the downloaded file is acsm and is not readable on a Kindle.
I'm very disappointed: as an ex-nurse working in the specialist area of post-anaesthetic recovery I've worked closely with anaesthetists for many years, and was really looking forward to this point of view. If love to receive an epub to read it, please?

From grief to laughter and every emotion in between. Ed uses wit and humour to shine a light on life in a hospital during the pandemic. For everyone who clapped outside their front door, this book shows the reason why all NHS staff deserve much more.

I don’t think that I will ever be able to unsee Ed with his fingers superglued together. But that image will also never fail to make me laugh.

Hard hitting and hilariously funny, not quite the combination youd expect from a behind the scenes tale of an anaesthetist!

After the years the whole country has dealt with thanks to the Covid pandemic, to hear it through the words on someone who was on the frontline was quite something.

This was a book that at times was hard to read due to the pure raw emotion and honesty but then within minutes I was gasping for air as I was laughing so much and while I felt some of these stories were over embellished, who doesn't re tell a story and now beef it up a bit?

The story takes us through Ed's training which had some side splittingly funny anecdotes, his rotations as a junior doctor though to Covid hitting. Ed is moved from his safe place in the operating theatres to the devastating scenes in ICU.

If anyone needs a reality check at just how much the NHS staff are under appreciated, this book will do it. It was a real humbling read that made me appreciate the staff and care professionals even more so.

A big recommendation to all readers that enjoy medical memoirs. A quick, entertaining and inspiring read.

3.5⭐

Thanks to netgalley and Octopus Publishing for the ARC.

A well-written, very engaging real life medical memoir from a doctor that was at the front line of covid 19. It held my interest throughout and I appreciated the author's humour and wit.

***advance review copy received from NetGalley in return for an honest review***
I said for a while that I didn’t want to read or watch anything to do with Covid or the pandemic - why, indeed, when I lived through it? The thing is, whilst we all lived through it to one degree or another, unless we were frontline healthcare workers like Ed Patrick, we didn’t really live through it at all.
Of course, this book isn’t solely based around the pandemic, though the chapters that are show us the harsh realities of life on the frontline. The rest of the book describes with detail and humour what it is to be a junior doctor and, latterly, an anaesthetist.
A funny and well-written book, that is a necessary read to understand what really went on in the ICUs.

Such an incredible and funny read- I knew as soon as I started the first page that this book was going to be brilliant. The humour in this book worked and was just about right, I just wish it was a longer read. I managed to read this book in one sitting because I couldn’t put it down.

I don’t say this often but I wish I could give this book more than 5*’s!

Ed Patrick's work detailing his move into medicine and some of the realities of the position is truly eye-opening; they're able to balance wit and humorous tales with the heartbreaking reality of life and the medical field, with callbacks to his earlier days studying to truly punctuate the suddenness and scary reality of the Covid pandemic.

What a beautiful, honest look inside the NHS and the staff that keep it alive. No bells and whistles, no dramatics, it feels genuine and human.

The global pandemic was (and to me, still is) terrifying, to read about it from Patrick's perspective is equal parts heartbreaking and reassuring. I'd love to read more from Ed and where he ends up in his career.

Why have I not heard of this book before? It was an excellent, educational, moving and in parts hilarious read. I rarely laugh out loud at books, but I did at various times throughout this book. It is a fascinating memoir of this doctor’s training and hospital experiences. His explanations of drugs used and medical techniques are clear without being condescending, and are fascinating to read. The chapters relating his experiences during the pandemic were very sensitively written and very moving. I hope Rose is thriving now! This book deserve to be much more well known. Compare to similar books I have read this was funnier, better written and more relatable. My only criticism is that the ending was rather abrupt . I very much hope there is another book by this author to look forward to in the future. My thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and Dr Patrick or allowing me access to a digital copy of this book.

This book is set in 2 halves. The first looks at Ed journey through his medical training. Training all the areas of doctoral medicine. Before settling on his chosen profession of a anaesthetic. This was my favourite half of the book. It was insightful and funny. Ed comes across as such a genuine, wholesome and hilarious guy. He’s open and honest at his ups and also downs in a comical way for our reading pleasure.

The second half looks at Ed journey as an Anaesthetist. The reality of it. Then covid hit. Suddenly everything was so much harder. Job roles became blended, the NHS became one. They bravely fought to save the nation, all the lives that came before them. I was a housekeeper at the hospital at the time and I saw first hand the amazing work all those who work for the NHS do, and did especially during covid. There is still humour in the second half but it is done respectfully and without taking away from the seriousness of covid. The covid deaths were and still are so heartbreaking and raw to many and this book highlights that.

The only reason this was not 5 star for me was that I found the book dragged in parts with bits that could have been missed, yet in other parts there was not enough and it could have been elaborated on. The book could have been a little longer I feel with more stories from Ed’s training or while qualified. And finally I found the ending to be abit abrupt.

But overall a good read :).


*I was given a copy of this book from NetGalley for my honest opinion of this book*

This is the story of an NHS anaesthetist during the COVID pandemic and why he chose the speciality. It is humorous but also emotional at times. Though the ending is a little abrupt but that is the way of memoir. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

This was a funny and devastating read. You don't get many books that can give you both.

I recognized a great deal of similarities from my own work during covid 19 and thought that Patrick managed to capture the life of a doctor well.

I really enjoyed this book.

We follow Ed as he becomes a doctor and decides to specialize in anaesthesia.

The story begins quiet light-hearted, with lots of funny stories of life in a UK hospital. However, the story takes a serious turn when Covid hits.

i love medical memoirs, ive read so many over the past few years, but ive been a bit wary about reading ones that cover the pandemic, just bc i don;t think i could handle it so soon. saying that, ed does a good job at balancing how his career started and then how it changed with covid. there's always comparisons to adam kay with books like these and this one is quite similar in tone and humour

What a read!
How can a book be so funny and yet so moving at the same time.
A must read book.
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for my copy.