Statistics On the basis of ten pilot critical-illness-survivors who were admitted to intensive care, we noted a mean difference of seven days after transfer to a general ward between the early rehabilitation protocol and usual care revealing an effect size of 0.58 (G*power 3.1.3) [39]. We calculated that a total sample size of 40 critical-illness-survivors per group (for a total of 80) would be needed to reach a power of 80% using a one sided Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney-Test at a significance level of 0.05. However the inclusion time period for new patients was limited to two and half years and only 53 patients met the inclusions criteria and were willing to participate.