Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Photo by Luis Melendez on Unsplash

This week on “The Gloria Purvis Podcast,” Gloria talks with Dr. Wes Ely, a professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, whose research has focused on improving the care and outcomes of critically ill patients with I.C.U.-acquired brain disease.

New medical research is revealing the detrimental effects of being sedated or placed in a medically induced coma for an extended period of time. And with the surge of Covid-19 patients in intensive care units, the rates of brain disease, including dementia, from these procedures has only increased.

Dr. Ely is the author of the book Every Deep-Drawn Breath, which shares his quest to return humanity to the medical profession by tending to patients’ emotional and spiritual needs as well as his effort to end a practice in I.C.U.s that leaves patients suffering from long-term brain problems. The title of his book is taken from John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, which reads "The skin tastes the air, and every deep-drawn breath is sweet."

Gloria and Dr. Ely discuss the dangers of prolonged sedation and how to advocate for your loved ones when they are receiving critical care. “This is an entire person. This is not just a set of lungs on a ventilator,” Dr. Ely says. “It’s an entire person of inestimable worth.”

Over the course of his long and storied medical practice, Dr. Ely had the honor of caring for the poet Maya Angelou in advance of her reading at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration. Dr. Ely was inspired to become a physician, in part, because of Maya Angelou’s writing. “I write from the Black perspective,” Ms. Angelou told her son, “but I aim for the human heart.” Upon hearing these words, Dr. Ely made them a personal mantra for his own life and medical practice. He aims always for the human heart.

To support the work of America Media, please consider purchasing a digital subscription.

Related links:

The latest from america

I use a motorized wheelchair and communication device because of my disability, cerebral palsy. Parishes were not prepared to accommodate my needs nor were they always willing to recognize my abilities.
Margaret Anne Mary MooreNovember 22, 2024
Nicole Scherzinger as ‘Norma Desmond’ and Hannah Yun Chamberlain as ‘Young Norma’ in “Sunset Blvd” on Broadway at the St. James Theatre (photo: Marc Brenner).
Age and its relationship to stardom is the animating subject of “Sunset Blvd,” “Tammy Faye” and “Death Becomes Her.”
Rob Weinert-KendtNovember 22, 2024
What separates “Bonhoeffer” from the myriad instructive Holocaust biographies and melodramas is its timing.
John AndersonNovember 22, 2024
“Wicked” arrives on a whirlwind of eager (and anxious) anticipation among fans of the musical.
John DoughertyNovember 22, 2024