Abstract
‘Cases in Paediatric Critical Care Transfer and Retrieval Medicine’ is far from just a series of interesting clinical vignettes; this 310-page book of tales from the South Thames Retrieval Service (STRS) is full of suspense as well as being hugely informative. It starts off with how a transfer service and network needs to perform as well as the medical equipment required for such a service. It then guides you through the management of both the most common pathologies encountered in paediatric retrieval work, such as sepsis and trauma, as well as some of the more unusual clinical emergencies such as atypical oncological presentations and PEG-related arterial perforations.
Each short chapter is a different real-life clinical scenario and the reader is first presented with a summary of the patient referred to the paediatric retrieval service including blood results, radiological images as well as the treatment given thus far in the story. The reader is then asked three questions about the management of the case, which are then the subject of discussion and exploration. This interactive structure allows the reader to deeply engage with the case study and consider their own management of the scenario. This structured approach combined with the inherent sense of drama, enhanced by intriguing chapter titles such as ‘When Blood Turns to Vomit’, turns this book into the first medical educational ‘page-turner’ I have had the pleasure of reading.
This book demonstrates the wealth of experience and skill of not just the authors but also the service. While the chapters outline many of the nuances of the speciality, they drill into the reader the importance of structured ‘A to E’ management, regardless of the complexity of the case. The authors also provide useful practical tools and checklists that any practitioner could use in their day to day.
The book is pitched at a level that is engaging, full of practical information and accessible not just for paediatric transfer specialists but for anyone who is involved in the management of acutely unwell children. I would encourage anyone in such a role to read this text, if nothing else to understand how retrieval services are set-up, the dilemmas practitioners face and how the referring teams can best prepare or facilitate transfers!
The authors state their main aim is to enable the reader to learn from other people’s experience as well as to facilitate the reader to calmly and analytically engage in paediatric resus, stabilisation and transfer, without the in vivo stress of critically unwell children and distressed parents. I would say mission accomplished, even if reading some of these cases did get my heart rate going!
