Description: In May 1971, Look magazine featured an article entitled "Chicago's Cook County Hospital: A Terrible Place." The article provided an in-depth look at the largest public hospital in the country, one located on Chicago's dangerous gang-controlled and drug-infested West Side. Months later, the author, then a naïve suburban teen, and one hundred other nursing students, began their training there, despite newspaper articles that warned that the hospital might close any day. At 'the County, 'where nurse duties included swatting flies in the OR and delousing patients, both nurses and doctors were expected to provide care under the most desperate of circumstances. Cooked provides an inside look at the 2,000-bed ghetto hospital, often referred to as a "19th-century sick house," that provided health care to millions of Chicago's poor."--
Review Quotes:
"This is a memoir about a hospital disrupted by chaos and held together by dedicated health care workers. Karels both honors these individuals and critiques the health care and political environments in which thay practiced."
-Nursing Spectrum Magazine
"This delightful book chronicles the journey into the world of nursing. Seasoned nurses will love it, and younger nurses can experience a world before their time.
-American Association for the History of Nursing Bulletin
"This book is fantastic. It is inspiring and moving,, as well as being an important historical document."
-Dr. Michael Moran, President, Preservation Chicago