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[[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|date=|publisher=Internet Journal of Health|accessdat=2007-08-25|title=Intensive Care Unit}}</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|date=|publisher=Dartmouth Medicine|accessdate=2007-04-10|title=Remembering Dr. William Mosenthal: A simple idea from a special surgeon}}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

{{med-stub}}

[[Category:Emergency services]]
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