DR.MOHAMMAD H.HADDADZADEH & NARASIMMAN SWAMINATHAN

Early ambulation of hospitalized patients being first introduced late during World War II in an effort to expedite the recovery of soldiers for return to the battlefield.1 Years later, intensive care units (ICUs) were created. Intensive care physician, Thomas Petty, provides a vivid comparison of medical care in ICU sat present v sat the inception of critical care:

When I make rounds in critical care units...what I see these days are paralyzed, sedated patients, lying without motion, appearing to be dead, except for the monitors that tell me otherwise...This was not the case in past....When we first started our unit in 1964, patients who required mechanical ventilation were awake and alert and often sitting in a chair...these individuals could interact...they could feel human....By contrast, patients with induced coma...cannot even maintain muscular tone...and muscle atrophy begins.”

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