Pettiness is the first casualty...

Hospitals strip a lot from you - your independence, your confidence, sometimes your will to live. But pettiness too. Pettiness is the first casualty of the ICU waiting room. No one has the energy for it.

Would you like this magazine? I'm done with it.
Oh, let me remove my coat. Take the seat. Take the seat, take it.
I'm going to get a soda. Would you like one?
Is this okay, or should I keep flipping?

Even the employees in the gift shop and the cafeteria and the food court and at the coffee carts, are to a person, respectful and courteous. Never solicitous, but kind. Because they don't know if your son just died, your wife just received chemo, you've been told you won't see June.

There is a basic human concern in hospitals.

ICU [excerpt from Coronado]
Dennis Lehane