A family gathers in the waiting room while their father lies in the ICU, machines monitoring every vital sign, medications dripping through lines, a ventilator breathing for him. The intensive care unit is where medicine makes its most dramatic stand against death. A trauma patient is rushed to ICU from the emergency department, the team working to stabilize injuries that would have been fatal a generation ago. A surgical patient develops complications and is transferred to ICU, the higher level of monitoring needed until she is stable.