Deep Breaths

When I was eight years old, my parents threw a summer cocktail party. I remember watching four not-so-burly men shakily hoist one of their friends up the stairs to the deck of the house. Full of energy and warmth, if also a little imperious, Judy sat in her wheelchair at the centre of the swarm of adults. I knew she had had polio, but I didn’t give much thought to the virus. After all, it had been almost completely eradicated before I was born.

Over time, however, I did grow interested in medicine and became an intensive care physician responsible for critically ill patients. I have seen many kinds of ailment in the ICU (though never polio), and I have a “favourite” diagnosis: urosepsis. When a UTI gets out of hand and starts to overwhelm the body, bacteria escape into the bloodstream and the body goes into shock. By the time the person (usually elderly) gets to the emergency room...