Intensive Care

To be forced to prolong the life of a hopelessly ill, sometimes brain-dead patient is the most draining nursing situation, stresses Heron, an RN who recounts in dramatic detail her training and 10 years in the emergency and acute coronary care units of a San Francisco Bay Area hospital. The characters and lives of patientssome of them composite portraitsare fleshed out with melodramtic dialogue and novelistic touches, but the descriptions of the various cases, the constant state of crisis pervading the emergency room and the tense atmosphere of the acute care unit ring true. Most gripping is Heron's account of her own son's brush with death, and her burnout from physical and emotional exhaustionhealed by a return to her roots in Upstate New York and a laying of childhood ghosts. Literary Guild and Doubleday book clubs selections. (June 16)