I sat up with a start, pulling air deeply into my lungs with the urgency of a kid who swam underwater all the way across the pool. My brain was little more than static. I had to fight to open my eyes, which were matted closed.

The room was unfamiliar, but the annoying bug-zapper hum of the fluorescent lights and the battling smells of pine-sol and antiseptic told me I was in a hospital. The feel ...