The Prairie Doc: Prevention is the Best Treatment

What I remember most is the silence.

She was 19 years old, just starting her first semester of college. She had been transferred to our level 1 trauma center, intubated and in a medically induced coma. I was a third-year medical student, being introduced to the realities of medicine. Our team was clustered around her in the procedure room adjacent to the ICU while my senior resident inserted the central line we would use to quickly administer large volumes of medicine and fluids.

ICUs can be busy, noisy places. This ICU was a large open room, with rows of beds surrounded by all the equipment n...