From Polio to COVID the Evolution of Intensive Care
b"The modern ICU, or Intensive Care Unit, was born out of a time of crisis. It was 1952, and polio was raging in many places \\u2014 especially the city of Copenhagen. Patients poured into the hospitals, many of them gasping for air, turning blue, and eventually dying. Then a brilliant doctor tried a radically different approach \\u2014 pumping air directly into patients' lungs. It was an idea that would require intensive manpower, but save many lives. And it led to the birth of a new kind of medicine: intensive care. Seventy years later, ICUs sit at the cutting edge of modern medicine. They're the destination for the sickest patients \\u2014 including those who're hovering at death's door \\u2014 and home to some of medicine's most profound interventions. ICUs can be a place of pain and healing, of comfort and dying, a laboratory for innovation, or a sanctuary for grieving families. On this episode, we take a look at intensive care \\u2014 its roots, what it's like to work there, and how the coronavirus pandemic has changed it."