ABSTRACT
Iwent to see a young man on the intensive care unit at the large regional hospital where I was working as a psychologist. Craig had multiple chronic illnesses and had been known to staff at the hospital all of his life. I knew of him by reputation, though had never met him myself. I had been told on more than one occasion that he was “very unwell”—a euphemism on the unit for “dying”—only to see him a week or so later, oxygen cylinder in tow but as chirpy as you like, enjoying a coffee at one of the retail outlets on the ground floor of the hospital. Craig had respiratory problems as well as kidney failure, and lived a precarious existence hinging on the variable effectiveness of his treatments in stopping fluid filling his lungs. His life over recent years had been punctuated by multiple near-death experiences.
