Description: Seen through the eyes of a patient totally paralyzed with Guillain-Barré syndrome, this moving book takes readers through the psychological and physical pain of an eleven-month hospital stay. Bed Number Ten reads like a compelling novel, but is entirely factual. It is important reading for hands-on health care givers, those in medical and nursing schools, medical institution administrators, as well as the general public who may experience this situation from one or more perspectives at some time during their life. The book is recommended reading in several medical and nursing schools. These pages reveal the caring, the heroism, and the insensitivity sometimes found in the health care fields.
Review Quotes:
"...offers invaluable messages for anyone dealing with dependency, suffering, loneliness, helplessness, or acute or chronic debilitating diseases - in short, for anyone taking care of others. No one reading this book will ever again regard the helpless or incommunicative patient the same way."- New England Journal of Medicine
"It is a powerful book, which - thankfully -has a happy ending. But the sadness outweighs the gladness, especially where Baier's medical care is concerned. Perhaps BED NUMBER TEN should be required reading at medical schools." -Macon Telegraph and News
"Baier gives us a palpable sense of the course of the disease, the pain endured, the depression and loneliness...sincere and honest..." -The Boston Herald
"...if I or someone I care about were felled by Guillain-Barre Syndrome, BED NUMBER TEN is the handbook I'd recommend for battling through the physical anguish, the emotional terror and the mental strain of coming back from G.B.S...." -Des Moines Register
"I cannot begin to explain the importance of this book for health care professionals as well as the general public. As a nurse educator, this book has had profound impact on me as I attempt to teach students the art of caring for acute and chronically ill persons." -RN, MS (Nursing College)
"The story of her illness is interesting reading and a reminder of how fragile good health is and how cherished it should be." -Sue Allison, United Press International
"Baier's chronicle of courage offers hope to victims of the catastrophic disease." -Publishers Weekly