Cook County ICU: 30 Years of Unforgettable Patients and Odd Cases

By Cory Franklin

An inside look at one of the nation's most famous public hospitals, Cook County, as seen through the eyes of its longtime Director of Intensive Care, Dr. Cory Franklin.

Filled with stories of strange medical cases and unforgettable patients culled from a thirty-year career in medicine, Cook County ICU offers readers a peek into the inner workings of a hospital. Author Dr. Cory Franklin, who headed the hospital's intensive care unit from the 1970s through the 1990s, shares his most unique and bizarre experiences, including the deadly Chicago heat wave of 1995, treating some of the first AIDS patients in the country before the disease was diagnosed, the nurse with rare Munchausen syndrome, the first surviving ricin victim, and the famous professor whose Parkinson's disease hid the effects of the wrong medication. Surprising, darkly humorous, heartwarming, and sometimes tragic, these stories provide a big-picture look at how the practice of medicine has changed over the years, making it an enjoyable read for patients, doctors, and anyone with an interest in medicine.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chicago Review Press
• Release date: Sep 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9780897339285

Reviews for Cook County ICU

[mhowar19 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book. It was like having your own TV medical drama without all of the over-the-top or bad acting. Along with the anecdotes he includes, he provides interesting medical information such as chapter 8 concerning alcoholism. You walk along with Dr. Franklin as he does his rounds and get in first hand on his interesting cases, meeting his fascinating patients. Some will make you laugh and some will make you cry. Dr. Franklin doesn't use this book to make himself out to be the perfect doctor. You will see him at his worst and you will see him at his best. But most importantly you will walk away from this book with a good feeling and a little bit more information than you had when you began it.

[Andrew Pfannenstiel · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this book, but the writing lacked depth. There was a lot "telling " when a story that showed what happened would have been much better

[Jennifer Jenkins · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Some of the stories of Dr. Franklin are somewhat entertaining, but there’s definitely an air of bragging that is a bit unpleasant in the book. Many aspects about the book are reminiscent of an older man who has bored everyone around him with his work stories...so why not write a book about it then. There are portions of the book where he seems to needlessly specify if characters are black (there are a few places where it’s relevant, but certainly not everywhere). Oftentimes, the author comes off as wanting to seem more important than he actually is.

[foggylady · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Dr. Franklin writes in a warm engaging manner.
His compassion for patients is clear, extending to the last chapter which
addresses a key point how the current system of medical practice has changed,
to the detimate of both doctor and patient.

[MissNaya · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An inside look at one of the nation's most famous public hospitals, Cook County, as seen through the eyes of its longtime Director of Intensive Care, Dr. Cory Franklin.

There are people who might find the odd humor exhibited by Dr. Franklin, weird or even offensive... Maybe its easier if you are in the field, but I found his stories very entertaining, and this was a book that recounts the practice of medicine not with today as a starting point, but the '70s. To look a this with modern prejudices won't work, and I actually don't believe people are as squeaky clean and uber ethical as they often claim in public or in reviews.


I was a bit confused as to why ICU was so prominent when he doesn't talk about the ICU all that much, but I still liked it, and found Dr. F compassionate and down to earth a non-critcal fellow.
I enjoy books with a medical theme and this did not disappoint me.

In this book, Dr. Franklin recounts stories about his colleagues and patients during his 32 years in medicine. His stories and remembrances were entertaining and covered many aspects of hospital life and his early training.

[Judith Hillman · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good writing about doctors and hospitals relating interesting situations that give insight to problems and solutions in the medical field.

[judiex · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Cory Franklin, MD, spent most of his thirty-year career as a doctor in the Intensive Care Unit at Chicago’s Cook County Hospital. This book presented vignettes of incidents that happened to him there as well as at other hospitals in other cities while he studied to be a doctor. Through his stories, the reader can gain some insight into how the medical profession works and how and why it has changed. One point that he raised several times was the way medical students, interns, and residents were often bullied by their superiors. While the results could have major effects–not getting admitted to a hospital’s training program or not learning another cause for a medical situation–no explanation was offered for why this happened, how it started, how it permeated the system, or what benefits, if any, it produced. He also discussed the turf wars between internists and surgeons.He also discussed the way hospital personnel, especially doctors, do not see patients as people but as diseases. They miss important information because of that, e.g., stereotyping a patient rather than considering that a condition may be caused by medication. Later on he mentioned how modern medical practices have distanced the doctor and the patients. Underlings do much of the prep work that the doctors used to do. Much work, such as diagnosing, is done with a computer which causes the doctor to be looking at the screen rather than at the patient for much of the examination. COOK COUNTY ICU explained some of the feelings and experiences hospital patients experience. In order for hospitals to run smoothly, patients become infantilized.: They lose control of their environment and freedom and may rebel or react in ways to regain control, e.g., become argumentative or demanding; women may become flirtatious, men may become sexually suggestive. Doctors and nurses who become patients are often the worst offenders because they are more aware of what is happening to them.People or people thought to be poor, confused or had language barriers, had less chance of receiving the same quality of care as did their more respectable counterparts. There is no information about how the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) has or has not changed that.The book is filled with examples of problems caused by numerous illnesses, some quite difficult to diagnose. It also briefly addressed the HIV-AIDS beginning when patients with the disease began showing up in the emergency room. Extraneous experiences included being the medical consultant for the movie “The Fugitive” and speaking with the doctor in charge of the emergency room in Memphis when Elvis was brought in.Before World War II, most wealthy people were treated at home. Only the less wealthy went to hospitals and at least half could not pay their bills. The slack was picked up by philanthropic groups and the government. That changed after the war when employers began offering medical insurance to their employees. Medicare entered the picture in the 1960s and in the 1980s, private donors were sought to pay for expansion and new construction. The 2000s brought in mergers and consolidations. Independent community hospitals disappeared. The effect the change became evident on the walls of the corridors. Instead of portraits of prominent doctors who were involved with patient care they were replaced by portraits of administrators and board members and plaques with the names of donors and focused on money.One segment of the medical community did not change: Free clinics. They still faced the same medical and medicinal care problems.But they also had more intrastaff congeniality and more appreciation from their patients.Franklin explains why more doctors consider leaving the profession today and some of the problems caused by more government oversight (e.g. HIPAA rules) and electronic record keeping,The vignettes were interesting and brief. The technical jargon was kept to a minimum and was written so the lay reader could understand it. I found the attempts at writing accents, primarily for New Yorkers and Black people, insulting, condescending, and unnecessary. Franklin made it very clear that he did not like the people he met when he went to New York City for interviews. But his statement that “Saul Steinberg’s famous New Yorker cover, “View of the World from Ninth Avenue” is not without some basis assumes that all the readers will be familiar with that cover.I hoped for more content from the book than I found.I received a copy of this book from Goodreads Giveaways.