From Polio to COVID — the Evolution of Intensive Care

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 — 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 — 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 — including those who're hovering at death's door — 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 — its roots, what it's like to work there, and how the coronavirus pandemic has changed it.