In Shock: My Journey from Death to Recovery and the Redemptive Power of Hope

Written by Dr. Rana Awdish

Narrated by Dr. Rana Awdish and Teri Schnaubelt

Now a Los Angeles Times Bestseller

The New York Times Book Review: "Awdish's book is the one I wished we were given as assigned reading our first year of medical school, alongside our white coats and stethoscopes...dramatic, engaging and instructive."

A riveting first-hand account of a physician who's suddenly a dying patient and her revelation of the horribly misguided standard of care in the medical world

Dr. Rana Awdish never imagined that an emergency trip to the hospital would result in hemorrhaging nearly all of her blood volume and losing her unborn first child. But after her first visit, Dr. Awdish spent months fighting for her life, enduring consecutive major surgeries and experiencing multiple overlapping organ failures. At each step of the recovery process, Awdish was faced with something even more unexpected: repeated cavalier behavior from her fellow physicians―indifference following human loss, disregard for anguish and suffering, and an exacting emotional distance.

Hauntingly perceptive and beautifully written, In Shock allows the reader to transform alongside Awidsh and watch what she discovers in our carefully-cultivated, yet often misguided, standard of care. Awdish comes to understand the fatal flaws in her profession and in her own past actions as a physician while achieving, through unflinching presence, a crystalline vision of a new and better possibility for us all.

As Dr. Awdish finds herself up against the same self-protective partitions she was trained to construct as a medical student and physician, she artfully illuminates the dysfunction of disconnection. Shatteringly personal, and yet wholly universal, she offers a brave road map for anyone navigating illness while presenting physicians with a new paradigm and rationale for embracing the emotional bond between doctor and patient.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Oct 24, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543640946

Dr. Rana Awdish

DR. RANA AWDISH is the Director of the Pulmonary Hypertension Program at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and a Critical Care Physician. She was recently named Medical Director of Care Experience for the ($6 billion, 24,000 employee) Health System. She was awarded the Speak-Up Hero award in 2014 for her work on improving communication, as well as the Critical Care Teaching Award in 2016. In 2017 she was a finalist for the Schwartz Center’s 2017 National Compassionate Caregiver of the Year (NCCY) Award and the Physician of the Year award from the Press Ganey National Client Conference. Dr. Awdish is board-certified in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine.

Reviews for In Shock

[Frieda Snijder · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Thank you so much for this excellent book! I would love it to become required reading for all future medical students. It so resonates with me throughout my 40years of nursing. I will recommend it to the physicians and other coworkers I work with .

[Sarah · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is an incredible book, and anyone involved in healthcare would benefit from reading it. I learned so much, it was illuminating in many ways. I’m a paramedic and think of and use the things I learned daily. Thank you to Dr. Awdish for sharing. The only thing I did not like (at all) was the way the narrator read. She did different, goofy voices for different people in the book like she was reading to a 2 year old. It was so out of pocket for the book and topic, it was very off-putting. It diminished an incredibly heavy, important, and sacred message and information. She also mispronounced a variety of the medical terms. I’d give her 1 star for her silly (for lack of a better word) way of reading. The book itself is 5 stars, and I will continue to recommend it.

[Julie · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Interesting. Amazing what the human body can do and what surgical treatment can achieve.

[melissa brown · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

So insightful, beautifully written. I listened to it one chapter at a time so I could really absorb the lessons imparted. Absolutely loved it

[junipersun · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book gave me a lot to think about, and awed me by the willingness of Awdish to take a hard look at how she treated patients, and her willingness to work to train new awareness in her fellow doctors. Also by the amount of pain and suffering she went through during her illness and healing.I have a nursing background, and thoroughly appreciated the mention of the many procedures, diagnoses, and treatments.This was heard as an audiobook, beautifully and caringly read. Yet that also means I am unable to copy out any of my favorite passages.

[glennbell_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The author has written a powerful book, which provides her story of severe sickness. She is aN ICU doctor and she became a patient in her own hospital. She learned much from this life event. She is trying to improve communication between doctors and patients. She has given lectures explaining how doctors can be psychologically damaging to their patients and themselves. I am glad to have the opportunity to learn from her without having to go through her pain.

[zarasecker18 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I was first attracted to this book because it was written by a doctor. I thought it may have been about a doctor who had had a near death experience (I read a book like this a few years ago), what I was greeted with so much more. This was a slow to start book but well worth persevering with as the story contained within its pages is very powerful and at times gut-wrenching. However, it also showcases Dr Awdish’s own personal development and growth through an extremely harrowing time for her and her family. It also opened her eyes to how, at least at her own hospital (the story is set in America), impersonal the medical profession is. Her discovery of this as a patient herself led to her being a pioneer for change whereby the patients were treated as human beings and not an illness or surgery that needed performing.

Dr Awdish being a change pioneer though was only part of the story. A big part of the story was really about learning to make her own voice heard in spite of how much pain she was in. The description of her horrific trauma and the toll that that put on not only herself but also her husband and wider family unit, tugged at the heart strings. More than that though, it showed Awdish deal with the ramifications of a misdiagnosis of her initial symptoms, to eventually finding out what really was the problem and getting that rectified, to having her second child (she lost her first one as a result of the severe trauma suffered through her blood loss). This is a story of triumph, positive change where it was needed most, and finding your voice so that you can be heard instead of depending on others to speak up for you because you’re physically unable to do so.