"We Can't Kill Your Mother" and Other Stories of Intensive Care
by Lawrence Martin, M.D.
Table of Contents

NOTE: These stories can be downloaded in their entirety from 1st Books Library ($4.95). The book can also be ordered in trade paperback format for $13.50. For purchasing the downloaded or print versions, please go to 1st Books Library and enter the first part of the title in their search engine. Below are the first few paragraphs of A STRANGE PNEUMONIA

One day in March 1985 -- the year is important -- we received a patient from another hospital: Reginald Herbert III, a 46-year-old oil company executive. In April of that year Mr. Herbert was hospitalized at a non-teaching suburban hospital with an undiagnosed and progressive lung infection. For two weeks his doctors tried in vain to diagnose the cause of infection, finally concluding that he needed an open lung biopsy.

An 'open' biopsy is a major operation, literally an opening up of the chest cavity to remove a piece of lung tissue. Mr. Herbert was transferred to our care mainly because Mt. Sinai Hospital Center is better equipped for this procedure. He arrived on a Friday afternoon, in preparation for surgery the following Monday. On exam he was short of breath, breathing rapidly, and had a temperature of 102. He was "acutely ill" and could only talk with great effort because of respiratory distress. We obtained most of his medical history from the transfer records and Mrs. Herbert, a trim, fortyish woman who answered our questions but never went out of her way to volunteer more than was asked.

The facts were meager. Mr. Herbert had been well until three months before hospitalization, when he first noted onset of fatigue and a dry cough. Two seven-day courses of antibiotics, taken as an outpatient, did not change his symptoms.