Emotional moving a truly moving readAn eye opening look at the life of this young anesthesiologist just starting his medical career when covid hits.I cried I laughed totally enjoyed.#netgalley #octopuspublishing.

Many thanx to the author, NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me the opportunity to read and review this book.

I enjoy real life medical books and this didn't disappoint. We are taken through the author's life from studying to becoming an anaesthesiologist at the beginning of the Covid pandemic.. He also gives insight into the mental and physical state of the medical teams and the exhaustion they were experiencing.

The book stopped very suddenly but that may could be due to his Part 2 book?

Beautiful. Poignant. Phenomenal.
This was a beautiful read and I learnt so much. I cried and I smiled and there was nothing more that I wanted from this book. Truly a gem.

Oh, British doctors, why are you so dry?

And why is that so relatable?

A young anaesthetist when COVID breaks out, Ed Patrick recounts his journey to through medicine, and how that brought him to the specialty of anaesthesia.

Worlds apart from my own South African setting, I can still identify with Ed’s experiences. It is uncanny, how bittersweet to read such real, horrifying, tender experiences.

At the same time, perhaps that relatability is why I can’t give it a higher rating, yet will still recommend it to some readers. Besides being the first anaesthetic memoir I’ve read, there is little that sets this memoir apart. Yes, he writes of COVID - the part anaesthetists played, the part so few realise we played - but to me, I was basically just reading my life of the past two years.

However, I HIGHLY recommend this book to people who like medical memoirs but aren’t anaesthetists themselves. Students thinking of studying medicine, medical students, and young doctors will also find this memoir engaging and insightful, and offer some perspective on their future plans.

The book is about the author's journey through med school and then starting his career. After going through a few rotations he ends up being an anesthesiologist. In the second half of the book we get a glimpse into life in early COVID times as an anesthesiologist in the UK. It was quite fascinating to learn about the role of anesthesiologist and how they are really specialists in the area of breathing, making them vital during COVID.

There was a lot of humor in the book and I really enjoyed reading it. I felt the ending was a bit abrupt though and the beginning a bit slow.

Funny, heart-touching, serious and written with a fierce intensity, this book kept me enthralled within its pages. I simply couldn't focus on anything else other than this literary force.
Highly recommended.

I enjoy reading medical memoirs and have enjoyed others such as This is Going to Hurt.

This follows Ed Patrick from his time at Aberdeen Uni studying medicine, to his eventual decision to become an anaesthetist. Ed ends up working in the ICU during the Covid pandemic, dealing with seriously ill patients.

Despite the serious subject, there are moments of humour in the book and it’s easy to read. I found I could pick it up and read a little at a time, due to the relatively short chapters and the fact it’s split into sections.

The book raises the important issue of mental health support for medical staff and the general public after dealing with the pandemic.

“I don’t want to see patients just survive. I want them to live their lives.”

Overall, I found this an interesting and readable book. However, I found it ended rather abruptly.

Loved this book, had me hooked from the beginning. I couldn’t put it down and I loved the humour despite the seriousness of the subject.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

I need to catch my breath, i have been laughing so hard reading this. Sad jokes aside, this was a whirlwind of a book. From Ed Patrick's college to early residency life, the choices he had to make, the long tiring hours, and the helplessness in a few situations, covid times, this book covers everything. So it is an autobiography of sorts.
I never knew that medical residents have it as tough as engineers to select a field, maybe a tad bit more. I always thought they have their career path planned way ahead when they enter medical schools, atleast that is what is portrayed. Another thing that i really appreciated is the role of anaesthesiologist is highlighted as that is a field which is shadowed by other fields. I really appreciate the humorous way of Ed to explain certain situations and found myself smiling teeth to teeth and people staring me. But it was worth it.
I would highly recommend this book to everyone.

Fascinating, frightening and frustrating! I absolutely devoured Catch Your Breath, the memoir of an NHS Anaesthetist by Ed Patrick. Written in short snippets of cases, experiences, and daily life this book was super easy to read and would be a great book to dip in and out of if you're short on time. However, for me the issue was putting it down. Whenever I needed to do some 'life stuff' I'd always tell myself I'd put the book down as soon as I'd finished that particular snippet but then I'd start the next one and tell myself that was definitely the last and so on and so on until I was having to drag myself away.
I loved reading the little insights into life as a Doctor and how Anaesthetists are vital to all different areas of medicine and not just for attending to patients in surgery. I really think it's a medical area that is often overlooked and underestimated but Ed has done a fab job of bringing the role to life and highlighting how complex and interesting it can be.
The writing was also really comical at times with some dark humour thrown in so if you loved This Is Going To Hurt by Adam Kay then Catch Your Breath is definitely a book for you.
This was easily a 5 star read and I'll be recommending it to as many people as I can.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy of this book in return for an honest review.

This is about Ed journey from n the medical profession. It is funny in parts and all so upsetting in others.
Thank you NetGalley for letting me read this book

Brilliant memoir from Ed Patrick and an excellent insight into his life as an a anaesthetist.

This was an easy read following his path from newly qualified to his most recent experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. The humour that Ed includes in his writing makes this an enjoyable read of what is a very harrowing situation. Overall a very good, insightful and informative read and one that I would recommend.

Thanks to Octopus Publishing and NetGalley for the review copy.

Both incredibly funny and touching…. This was one of those books that sucked me in from the beginning and didn’t let go until I finished!

Not able to review as the Netgalley app is currently not working and the option to read or download to kindle is not available.

A total breath of fresh air, and humerous look into the story of a NQ doctor trying to find his home in the NHS..

It's not all roses however as at times the tales are a little harrowing, but it's a great book and well recommended read non the less.

This book is very much a book of two halves - in the first half, you read the stories of Ed's time as a newly-qualified doctor, trying to find his speciality. However, once the pandemic hits, the book changes and becomes more of the harrowing stories that you would expect from a first-hand account from the frontline of a pandemic! As a huge fan of This is Going to Hurt, I can see the inspiration that comes from it, but I think (however understandable, given the subject matter!) the gear change can be a bit jarring. It's a 4* book for me.

This was absolutely brilliant. Full of humour, raw honesty and emotional chapters, this is a book that will stay with me and will recommend to everyone.
It has plenty of funny stories as we go through Ed's training to be an anaesthetist which was really enjoyable and made me laugh out loud plenty of times!
Then covid hits and it becomes heartbreaking as he is moved from operating theatres to the ICU. It definitely made me appreciate the NHS and everyone in the health and care professions so much more and opened my eyes toward the struggles and hardships that the NHS really went through.

Ed Patrick’s account of training to be a hospital anaesthetist starts off as a humorous one.
We find out about his training and the hilarious mishaps. This part of the book is full of one-liners and witty punchlines.
But - as the pandemic hits - this turns into something much sadder as he is called to work with Covid patients in ICU.
This part lets you feel the hopelessness and sheer slog of the role at the hardest of times..
I’m always fascinated by real life medical lives and drama and this definitely didn’t disappoint.
Recommended: sad, uplifting, humorous, heartbreaking - all in equal measure.

Catch your Breath by Ed Patrick

So much to enjoy with this book. Funny , honest , at times brutal , but always a great insight to the running of the NHS and how the staff have to deal with whatever is put in front of them.
I found Ed's early days as a newly qualified Dr fascinating and it was lovely to see how his confidence grew ( as well as those around him did ! )
As we are living through covid , it was also a good insight to see how our fantastic NHS were prepared to go that extra mile even at the expense of their own mental and physical health to get so many people , desperately ill with this disease through their darkest days.