ICU ESSENTIALS: 50 Common case presentations

This book began with protocols and pathways, but it ends with people.

Behind every ventilator, lab report, and monitor lies a human life suspended between fragility and hope.

As you've walked through these 50 ICU cases and 50 empiric therapies, you've encountered uncertainty, urgency, and triumph. You've seen how structured thinking can save time, and how time can save lives.

But beyond clinical reasoning, may you also carry forward something deeper: empathy, calm under pressure, and the humility to keep learning.

Critical care is not just about being fast. But it's about being right, and being kind.

Thank you for walking this journey with me. May this book serve not as a conclusion, but as a foundation for the countless lives you are yet to save.

- Dr. Kenil Shah

Author and Forever a Student of Medicine