Extras · 1 of 4

A typical day

Two jobs in one. On clinic weeks you see 12 to 20 patients: asthma, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), lung nodules, coughs that have lasted a year, people frightened by a shadow on a scan. On unit weeks you round through an intensive care unit at seven in the morning, deciding ventilator settings, sedation and whether a patient is well enough to breathe alone. Procedures fill the afternoons and family meetings fill the gaps, including the ones about stopping treatment.