The Shock That Saved Me: ICD Living Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe life with an implanted defibrillator, or ICD. Writers came to it after a heart attack on a bus shift, a faint at a swim meet, a collapse during pickup hockey, a fever in a student flat, or a family history of sudden death. They include a surgical nurse, a welder moved to the office, a church organist and piano tuner, a linebacker benched after pre-season screening, a farmer forty minutes from the nearest ambulance and a mother lying awake over her teenage son, from Leeds to Lagos and Duluth to Dubai. They describe a first shock, seven shocks in one night, four shocks that were not needed, a safety notice about a lead, an infection that came back, a wire that had to come out, a device that sits under the skin and never touches the heart, a test that set off a dangerous rhythm on purpose, battery changes, MRI scans, a trip to Spain with a wallet card, cardiac rehab and a bridge to transplant. Daily life runs through driving rules, cost, intimacy, living alone with a bedside monitor, and a family's talk about switching the device off near the end of life. Some lost work they loved and carried the fear of shocks for months; others describe ten years of ordinary days.

Who it's for

For anyone who has just been told they may need an ICD, who already carries one and lies awake wondering, or who loves someone living with one.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 251 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.