"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 book's title in their search engine. Below are the first few paragraphs of COMA

There is coma and there is COMA. Jack Wilkerson, a 35-year-old accountant, was out for six months and we never knew why. His case was the stuff of tabloids (MAN SLEEPS HALF-YEAR DOCS BAFFLED) and also the kind that ends up in medical journals (`Prolonged coma of unknown etiology: report of a case and review of the literature').

It happened this way. One day in July I got a call from the emergency room. "Dr. Martin, we have a thirty-five-year-old man who may have encephalitis. He's confused and febrile to one hundred point two. His brother says it began with a headache last night and this morning he didn't know where he was."

"Has be been tapped?" I asked.

"Yes, his spinal tap is clear, so we don't think he has meningitis. Anyway, he's going for a CT scan and then to MICU."

Apart from the fact that encephalitis is always a serious medical problem, there was nothing particularly unique or startling about this message. We see encephalitis all the time. Because of the potential for disaster, such as respiratory failure, everyone with this diagnosis is first admitted to the medical intensive care unit.