That prompted then-White House Counsel Gonzales and President Bush's chief of staff, Andy Card, to go to Ashcroft's bedside in an intensive care unit at George Washington University Hospital.
Sometimes I reflect on all the years of training and clinical experience my care team brought to my bedside and the operating rooms, and I am grateful.
He had been left paralysed after a car crash, and had set up a bedside camera at his home in Wiltshire because he had become concerned about the care he was receiving.