Interview with Dr. Christopher Johnson

I had the opportunity to interview Dr. Christopher Johnson on his book, Your Critically Ill Child: Life and Death Choices Parents Must Face. Dr. Johnson is the former director of the Mayo Clinic’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and is currently based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. As a driving force behind the development of Pediatric Intensive Medicine as its own medical discipline, he currently attends patients and establishes protocol in PICUs around the United States.

Dr. Johnson’s book is a concise and compassionate primer on the processes and hurdles parents of drastically ill children will face once in the hospital. I selected the book for its information. I know there are parents out there, right now, scouring the Web for hope, for knowledge, and for a map to navigate a terrifying maze of lingo, red-tape, cost and anguish. This is such a book.

But it turns out, it’s also a book that anyone can absorb, and be glad of the experience. He reveals the workings of the PICU system within parables of real patients and real parents. And, just like in his daily experiences, there is fear, fascination, tragedy, hope and miracles between its covers.

To learn more, listen to the interview here:

MP3 File

http://psychjourney.libsyn.com/

For more information on Dr. Johnson’s books, upcoming projects, and his excellent ongoing blog discussions of pediatrics and the state of medicine in America, visit his website at: www.chrisjohnsonmd.com

For more information on Medicaid and government benefits/requirements:

www.cms.hhs.gov

And for more on the latest in children’s health:

www.childrenshospitals.net