Abstract
This is Matt Morgan’s second book of creative non-fiction and is at least as good as his first. “One Medicine” follows from 2019’s acclaimed “Critical.” That first book contained compelling patient stories and was what you wanted your family to read so that they better understood your day job and evening moods. His sophomore publication is a different, but similarly satisfying, beast. More specifically, it is a book about the beasts and deftly provides dozens of examples of how animal physiology can be applied to cutting-edge Intensive Care Medicine. My family took away plenty of fodder for the next pub quiz. This jobbing intensivist took away no end of shareable lessons for the bedside and a renewed scientific fascination.
Matt has definitely NOT suffered from “second book syndrome.” Instead, he has, once again, produced something that is definitely worth your finite time and budget. As well as belonging on our bookshelves and e-readers, Matt’s work was a delight via the auditory canal. That is to say, after reading its 263 pages and 16 chapters I then thoroughly enjoyed his friendly narration and comforting welsh lilt during my daily commute. Despite being a fulltime clinician and accomplished researcher, Dr. Morgan somehow also produces extremely engaging (and witty and cheeky) prose that will appeal to lay and medical readers. I thought I knew the bullet-points of comparative physiology but was humbled, and delighted, by how much I did not. Regardless, by the book’s conclusion I found myself prouder to be part of this profession and more excited about our future. This is no small achievement given the battering we have taken courtesy of a recent mutating, mutinous, coronavirus.
For those not yet won over, what follows are a few teasers. For example, the genesis for the book was when one of Dr. Morgan’s patients required bronchoscopy after aspirating a biscuit (to quote the author “it started with a hobnob”). In contrast, a flock of birds passed the ICU window with no fear of swallowing debris and greater tolerance for hypoxemia. The difference is the bird’s coaxial or circular breathing (chapter 10). Dr. Morgan explains the microbiome and clostridium difficile therapy via caterpillars and koalas (chapter 3). He covers head trauma and g-force courtesy of the giraffe (chapter 4), and infertility via the triple vagina-ed kangaroo (chapter 1). He posits the future of needles after walking naked through a cloud of Scottish midges (chapter 8). He uses bats and racehorses to explain prone ventilation and CPAP (chapter 9) and explains mental health issues via dogs, cats, gorillas, sheep, and dolphins (chapter 16). Throughout, he dips in and out of nature and in and out of the ICU, and it never seems forced or gratuitous.
No book is perfect. With non-fiction, such as this, there is the potential to be too technical for lay readers, or too patronizing for those in the trade. Moreover, busy clinician readers might want 3000 words rather than 300 pages or may prefer technical prose, diagrams, and equations. In contrast, I believe Dr. Morgan has shown how storytelling can draw in an audience. I was, for example, delighted rather than repelled, by his description of his hospital during COVID as “a terrible house party with too many guests who just couldn’t leave.” I feel there is too much dry medical writing so I commend how Dr. Morgan’s approach has humanized (sic) animals, patients, and practitioners. If that bolsters curiosity and respect then we all benefit.
Dr. Morgan finishes by challenging us to see animals as more than items on a menu, and in so doing has made this recalcitrant carnivore reflect. Matt reminds us that animals have given their lives for us with little in return. He argues persuasively that veterinary medicine is not separate from human medicine, and that “speciesism” (namely putting humans above animals) is tough to defend. Ever since Robert Virchow coined the word “zoonosis” we have known that diseases pass back and forth between animals and humans. Dr. Morgan has superbly summarized how cures do too.
