What does it mean to be cared for as a patient in the intensive care unit (ICU)? We investigated former ICU patients’ experiences and perspectives of the intensive care period. Six narrative interviews were conducted, revealing 35 narrative sections addressing this phenomenon. Drawing on Polkinghorne’s (1998) narrative analysis, findings are presented through both narrative and paradigmatic lenses. The emerging plot is conceptualized as a narrative inspired by the famous ballet ‘Sleeping Beauty’. Princess Aurora symbolizes the ICU patient, facing critical illness, helplessness, and uncertainty in this unfamiliar realm. The lilac fairy, her loyal companion, represents the ICU nurse, a guiding presence who facilitates the patient’s reconnection to personhood. Two possible endings highlight the diversity of patient’s experiences: For some, the narrative concludes in tragedy, not being perceived as person, solely treated as cases, leading to post-traumatic stress or prolonged recovery. For others, a sense of self and relational being is restored in an encounter and relation resulting in a more reconciliatory resolution, the comedic ending. Our broader study is aiming for an understanding of person-centred practice in the ICU. It is philosophically underpinned by McCance & McCormack’s understanding of Person-centredness, emphasizing the relational and contextual nature of personhood in care and further enriched by Levinas’s Ethics of Radical Alterity, highlighting the ethical significance of encountering the Other. Findings of this part of the investigation demonstrate that the quality of interpersonal encounters in the ICU plays a decisive role in shaping patients’ sense of self. Recognizing and responding to the patient as a person emerges as a critical factor in supporting recovery and mitigating long-term (psychological) consequences. Caring for a person in the ICU is not solely a clinical matter but is fundamentally ethical and relational, contingent upon the presence and actions of practitioners who engage with patients as persons not cases.