Who am I? @dr_mattmorgan
Doctor / Author / Speaker / Medical Advisor
Matt Morgan is a Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine, Honorary Professor for the Public Understanding of Medicine, and a regular BMJ columnist. He is medical advisor to The National Theatre London’s production of Nye - the story of Aneurin Bevan starring Michael Sheen - BBC Radio 4’s panel show Best Medicine, Casualty, and the forthcoming Channel 4 series Stepping Up.
Through three books published by Simon & Schuster, he has asked what it truly means to be alive. CRITICAL took readers inside the intensive care unit to witness life at its most fragile. ONE MEDICINE uncovered the hidden threads binding every species - and what a giraffe’s breathing can teach us about asthma. A SECOND ACT, an Observer Book of the Week, follows ten patients who survived cardiac arrest and the profound lessons their recoveries hold for all of us.
His forthcoming book, THE COMEBACK PLAN, argues that survival is not the finish line - it is the starting line: a science-backed guide to rebuilding after major illness, surgery, cancer, trauma, burnout, and post-viral fatigue.
He has contributed to more than 50 peer-reviewed scientific articles following a PhD in artificial intelligence and has written for The Guardian, The Times, The Spectator, and Esquire. His broadcasting spans BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme to CNN and the BBC.
He delivered the Woodridge and James Reason Lectures, has spoken at The Wellcome Trust and the world’s leading book festivals, and was nominated for the Royal Society’s David Attenborough Prize. He was named among the top fifty most influential people in health technology.
He is a member of the BMJ Commission on the Future of the NHS, founder of The Dictionary of Blood and Silence, ambassador for bereavement charity 2-Wish, and patron of The Humanimal Trust. He lives in Cardiff with his family.
CRITICAL - Simon & Schuster, 2019
‘A very special book filled with stories of survival, hope and loss.'
Adam Kay, author of the best-selling book This is Going to Hurt
'[Morgan's] wit and compassion are everywhere evident in this enlightening book, and he makes a welcome contribution to our understanding of these extraordinary times.'
Sunday TimesThrough the remarkable stories of his patients, Dr. Matt Morgan guides you through the body and its organs. He explains how various critical conditions arise, and all that goes into treating them – from the science, research and technology, to the tireless efforts of the doctors and nurses. This book gives you powerful insights about intensive care, many of which may prevent you, or those close to you, from ending up there. It will even teach you how to save a life.
ONE MEDICINE - Simon & Schuster, 2023
"Funny, fascinating and beautifully written."
Alexander van Tulleken, doctor and TV presenter"290 pages of inspiration"
The Times"a fun & fascinating dive into the physiology of the animal kingdom and what it means for the medicine we practice."
Kevin Fong, doctor, author and TV presenter
It all started with a Hob Nob. As Dr Matt Morgan, an intensive care consultant, examined a patient who had suffered a cardiac arrest after inhaling some biscuit crumbs, he saw a flock of birds fly past the window. They must inhale objects all the time when flying, how do they survive? he thought to himself. This began an investigation that spanned continents, species and millennia.
For animal science has so much to teach us about human medicine. While some of the overlaps and parallels are obvious – we know how much DNA we share with primates, the first pig heart has been transplanted into a human – there is so much more that we have learnt from the animal world. For example, studying kangaroos, in particular the female’s three vaginas, has improved in-vitro fertilisation success rates. Watching how a giraffe breathes can help save the life of someone struggling with asthma. Investigating why birds that live in the frozen Arctic circle don’t freeze to death led to advances with treating hypothermia. Getting a ECG on the 150kg heart of a humpback whale was instrumental to keeping patients with cardiac failure living longer.
We owe animals so much, it’s time to focus on examining how they live and what we still have to learn from them. Better shared understanding of how our species coexists with millions of others can lead to untold medical advances, help both humans and animals and improve the world for all creatures from single-celled bacteria to a 30,000 kg whale. Who knows, maybe a kiss from a frog will save your life?
A SECOND ACT - Simon & Schuster, 2025
'We have two lives. The second begins when you realise you have one.'
‘Morgan has a knack of writing simply and sincerely’
The Times
‘Morgan proves an excellent guide to such wisdom.'
The Observer - Book of the Week
My third book, A SECOND ACT - What Nearly Dying Teaches Us About Really Living, tells the stories of ten patients I have cared for as an intensive care doctor who survived cardiac arrest.
Each near-death experience was brought on by different circumstances, from drowning to freezing, heart attacks to severe allergies, avalanches to cancer. Their stories reveal how life can be reignited.
Through these profound recoveries, we uncover powerful lessons for our own lives, from reconnecting with lost friends to rediscovering the beauty of nature and making the most of our limited time on Earth.
Supporting the brevement charity 2Wish.
The Dictionary of Blood and Silence - a website
A collection of free, new, made-up words that try to capture the unspoken experiences of doctors and healthcare workers—the moments that don’t quite have a name but shape us all the same. Some are thoughtful. Some are a little funny. All are honest.
- Cupburn—the sting of a too-hot coffee swallowed between bleeps, knowing it may be your only one all shift.
- Solivane—a parent who has lost a child; from solus (alone) and vanus (emptied). A person who moves through the world carrying an absence like a shadow.
- Veinspotting—the idle habit of scanning strangers’ arms for places you could insert a cannula, proof that medicine follows you everywhere.
If you’re curious, take a look. If it resonates, subscribe for free.
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Selected Works
A letter from ICU
2020
My open letter addressed to patients during the COVID pandemic has been read by over half a million people worldwide and viewed over three million times after featuring on Channel 4.
A reunion
2020
I was so happy to meet again with Davide, a young dad who I first met when he was dying on the ICU.
Nye
2024
I'm delighted to work with my friend Tim Price as the medical advisor for The National Theatre' in London's production of "Nye", the story of Aneurin Bevan, staring Michael Sheen due to start in March 2024.
BBC Radio 4 Best Medicine
2024
Available NOW wherever you get podcasts Best Medicine!
I guarantee it’ll make you feel better.
Zoe Lyons gets sweaty in nature
Dr Matt Morgan acts on Animals
Dr Fotios Sampaziotis talks Transplants
James Wong hawks Horticulture
Death: A funny buisness
2025
I chat to hosts Becky and Tasha about my book 'A Second Act' which tells the story of ten patients he's encountered who were brought back to life from the brink of death. We talk about how I changed his perspective on mortality after having my own living funeral.
BMJ Christmas Edition
2026
Entries from my alternative medical dictionary for when we have no words
Best Medicine Radio 4
2026
Intensive Care Doctor Matt Morgan argues there's more to Breaking Bad News than simply delivering it.
A SECOND ACT
Short Books, March 2027
You’re here.
The operation is over.
The scans look better.
The crisis has passed. And yet you don’t feel right.
I wrote this book because too many people survive the worst moment of their life and are then left alone with the aftermath and the confusing period of in-between: fatigue, fear, pain, doubt, loss of confidence in a body that no longer feels like home.
I see this in-between space every day as an intensive care doctor, not at the brink of death, but in the long, quiet stretch that comes after. That is where this book lives.
I have followed the same patients through the weeks and months that follow, when the stitches are out, the blood tests have improved, the scans look reassuring, and yet the person sitting across from me in clinic does not feel saved. They feel lost. Tired in a way that sleep doesn’t fix. Anxious in a way that reassurance doesn’t touch. Estranged from a body that once felt familiar and now feels like borrowed equipment.
This is the part we do not prepare people for. And it is the part this book is about.
This is a book for anyone who’s ever said: I used to be fine.
‘The ultimate recovery guide for body, mind and soul.'
Dr Xand Van Tulleken
