Book Review: In Shock by Rana Awdish, MD

This May at the Cleveland Clinic Patient Experience Summit , I had the opportunity to hear a mind-blowing talk by a physician named Dr Rana Awdish. Her story was a personal account of how she literally died at her own hospital, losing her entire blood volume into her abdomen due to a ruptured liver tumor. Pregnant at the time, she lost the baby. She continued with her journey of pain, suffering, recovery, and healing while the audience sat pin drop silent, tears and sobbing audible. Her experiences as a patient transformed her understanding of medicine and how it should in actuality be practiced; with compassion, with empathy, and through making space for suffering and vulnerability. Needless to say, I couldn't wait to dive in to the pages of her book. Here's my review. 

Dr. Awdish tears down the walls housing her personal experiences as a doctor turned patient. She masterfully guides the reader through multiple vantage points: as a doctor expecting a child, to the loss of a child and her own “death”, to miraculous survival, painful determined recovery, multiple set backs, surgeries, and medical emergencies, with victories and profound revelations throughout.  You will need to put the book down to dry the tears that fall out of pure sympathy. The reader will experience complete disbelief that a single person could possibly endure such devastation, pain, and grief.  The story captivates with a raw authenticity, transporting the reader through a broad spectrum of emotions the reader couldn’t possibly be prepared to experience: disbelief, grief, devastation, sadness, victory, joy, and true hope.  Dr. Awdish’s deep inner reflections are juxtaposed with her seemingly endless battle for life, providing a thought-provoking framework for redefining the terms patient experience, patient engagement, doctor satisfaction, and the meaning of true healthcare. There is no doubt that medical education must be refreshed after experiencing this harrowing account.

Readers will undoubtedly leave this book permanently changed and rocked to the core. In Shock professes a convincing perspective on the need for compassion and human connection in medicine.  Dr. Awdish makes a clear case for the need for more empathy for doctors, patients, and their carepartners. She is a visionary enlightened by her profound experiences as a patient. This should be required reading by every medical and nursing student, every hospital administrator, technician, and staff member. There isn’t a single person who wouldn’t benefit from reading In Shock and experiencing the consequent opening of the soul first-hand.