A review by nic55
In Shock: My Journey from Death to Recovery and the Redemptive Power of Hope by Rana Awdish

This was another required book for school, and I'm so grateful this was assigned. There is a lot broken in the American healthcare system on a structural level and it would take way too long to outline that here. But as someone who intends on working in healthcare, experiencing a story that confronts the emotional gaps of our current system really resonated with me. I've seen and heard of many physicians who come into medicine with wide eyed dreams of saving lives and are then ground down by the way training and for-profit healthcare and countless other factors don't hold space for emotional vulnerability. And even while being empathetic towards that circumstance, I especially appreciated that this book did not absolve physicians, trainees, and other healthcare providers of the harm they've committed to patients. It was just overall very nuanced and written with a lot of compassion. Lastly, I really want to acknowledge the author's vulnerability in telling her story and including as much detail as she did. There was a lot of pain and near-death experiences in here, so I am grateful that she is still here to share this part of her life.

I think this book was a great addition to the beginning of my journey into healthcare, and I'll be thinking about it for a long time.