What is Intensive care unit?
[[File:Intensivstation (01) 2007-03-03.jpg|thumb|right|An Intensive Care Unit]] An '''intensive care unit''' (ICU), '''critical care unit''' (CCU), '''intensive therapy unit''' (ITU), or '''intensive treatment unit''' (ITU) is a special [[wikt:part|part]] of a [[hospital]]. Usually, [[wikt:people|people]] that are very sick are sent there. They need to be looked at by a nurse or doctor very closely in case they get more sick while at the hospital. Some ICUs may work with only one type of injuries. == History == In 1854, [[Florence Nightingale]] went to the [[Crimean War]]. There it was important to [[wikt:separate|separate]] seriously wounded soldiers from less-seriously wounded. Nightingale reduced [[death]] rates from 40% to 2% by creating the [[concept]] of intensive care. Because of a [[polio]] [[epidemic]], [[Bjørn Ibsen]] established the first intensive care unit in [[Copenhagen]] in 1953.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.ispub.com/ostia/index.php?xmlFilePath=journals/ijh/vol3n2/icu.xml |work= Internet Journal of Health |accessdate= 2007-08-25 |title= Intensive Care Unit |archive-date= 2007-10-10 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071010081631/http://www.ispub.com/ostia/index.php?xmlFilePath=journals%2Fijh%2Fvol3n2%2Ficu.xml |url-status= dead }}</ref> Patients with polio require more [[ventilation]] than normal; this is why Ibsen set up a special unit for them. The first person to use this idea in the United States was Dr. [[William Mosenthal]], a [[surgeon]] at the [[Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center]].<ref>{{cite web |url= http://dartmed.dartmouth.edu/spring04/html/vs_mosenthal.shtml |publisher=Dartmouth Medicine |accessdate=2007-04-10 |title= Remembering Dr. William Mosenthal: A simple idea from a special surgeon}}</ref> == References == {{reflist}} {{commons category|Intensive-care units}} {{med-stub}} [[Category:Hospitals]]