This is the 6th edition of a book I have found lying around in the staffroom or nurses' station of every ICU I've ever worked in, thumbed and battered from regular consulting. It is heavy stuff, not recommended unless you already have a good grounding in human physiology, because this is about when things go seriously wrong.

The book is divided into sections, each authored by an expert contributor and referenced, covering all aspects of ICU care from layout of the unit, through ethics, clinical trials, transplants, disorders affecting any or all of the major body systems, trauma (including gunshot, burns, poisoning, drowning, and god help us, biochemical terrorist attack!), shock, immunosuppressive conditions, acute infections, obstetric and paediatric emergencies, nursing and physiotherapy techniques.  There are also 8 appendices covering shorter topics such as intubation and therapeutic/toxic/lethal plasma concentrations of commonly used drugs.0

1292pp; copiously illustrated in b/w and colour with photographs, line-drawings, X-rays, scans, graphs,  and tables; references; exhaustive index.