Der Blick des Anästhesisten auf Jethro Tulls Aqualung

In 1971 the British rock band Jethro Tull published their milestone album Aqualung with a song of the same title. The song tells the story of a character also named “Aqualung”, a homeless person, who spends a cold day on a bench in a park in London. Nothing much happens: he watches little girls playing, bends to pick up a cigarette butt, walks to a public restroom, is offered a cup of tea by the Salvation Army, is scared by and flees from a young prostitute called “cross-eyed Mary”, and then finally dies with “rattling last breaths with deep-sea diver sounds”. Apparently, Aqualung is severely ill. He might suffer from pulmonary edema, peripheral artery disease, posttraumatic stress disorder and possibly from many other diseases typical of the homeless. The description of his final breaths may remind the anesthetist of the death rattle. One avenue for mediating medical knowledge to physicians is to link data and facts on diseases to elements of popular culture. This essay strives to use a still extremely popular rock song to sensitize and educate anesthetists and intensive care physicians regarding diseases of the homeless relevant to critical care.