End-of-Life Communication in the ICU
David W. Crippen, MD
Editor
End-of-Life Communication
in the ICU
A Global Perspective
David W. Crippen, MD
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
Pittsburgh, PA
USA
Library of Congress Control Number: 2007931623
ISBN: 978-0-387-72965-7
e-ISBN: 978-0-387-72966-4
© 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
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Foreword
The specialty of intensive care was born in the polio epidemic of the 1950s.
It was found that if polio patients could be ventilated by simple machines
or medical students, patients could recover. The ability to maintain ventilation
was important per se, but its impact was even greater in terms of the new tech-
niques it permitted, particularly surgical. It allowed time to learn to support
the circulation and, consequently, organs such as kidneys, brain, and liver,
although permitting the emergence of hitherto undescribed diseases