title: We Can't Kill Your Mother!: And Other Stories of Intensive Care: Medical and Ethical Challenges in the ICU
author:  Lawrence Martin 
description: [ We Can't Kill Your Mother!: And Other Stories of Intensive Care: Medical and Ethical Challenges in the ICU Martin, Lawrence ( Author ) ] { Paperback } 2001
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  #  Overture
  
  
  
  
  
  On the fifth of February 2020, I awoke in an intensive care ward in, of all
  places, Moscow. I had six-inch tethers attaching me to the sides of the bed
  because, in my unconscious state, I had been agitated enough to try to remove
  the catheters from my arm and leave the ICU. I was confused and frustrated not
  knowing where I was, surrounded by people speaking a foreign language, and in
  the absence of my daughter, Mikhaila, and her husband, Andrey, who were
  restricted to short visiting hours and did not have permission to be there
  with me at my moment of wakening. I was angry, too, about being there, and
  lunged at my daughter when she did visit several hours later. I felt betrayed,
  although that was the furthest from the truth. People had been attending to my
  various needs with great diligence, and in the wake of the tremendous logistic
  challenges that come about from seeking medical care in a truly foreign
  country. I do not have any memory of anyt