Intensive Care Unit

Firstly sending your Dad lots of get well soon vibes, I wish him well. xx

I have been in the ITU situation twice. I was there in 2003 after my first child was born & again in 2006 when it was my Dad, who sadly died.

I was sedated as I had multi organ faliure & sepsis, I was get sedated for 4 days & then stayed in ITU for a further 10 days before I could be moved to HDU. There were a couple of close calls, but I'm here OK.

From my experience there seems to be a process the body goes through when fighting infection, but this should be explained to you by the team, was there something in particular you wanted to ask.

I think what im asking is how long can a person be on ventillation for? He just doesnt seem to be making any progress. ok, he's stable and not going back the way, but it seems to have come to a standstill.

the staff have told us that they have to keep sedating him as when he is awake he is getting agitated and this can lower his oxygen levels. but he cant cough for himself as he's weak and sedated and to our minds it just seems like a vicious circle.

i wondered if any of you had had first hand experience of a situation like this, whereby the patient is sedated,on ventillation, and progress is not imminent.

thanks x

Meant to add, the policy in ITU at my local hospital is 5 days & then withdrawal attempt. Most are 72hrs or less as that seems to determine chance of survival.

Has he developed any more complications since being ventilated?

My nan was in Intensive care after an operation for a ruptured bowel, and sepsis.
We knew she'd be put in there after the op as they wanted her under sedation so she could use all her energy to fight the infection, as she also had heart problems.

She was in Intensive care for around a month (although it felt longer), sedated and on a ventilator for about 98% of the time. She was only moved from there as her kidneys hadn't restarted working after the operation.

Even such a small step forward is a huge step in there.
Keeping you and your dad in my thoughts. x

? Just think that it's the best place in the world for him to be. He will have one to one constant care. My dad had a huge brain tumour resting on his brain stem, he spent several weeks in intensive care then several months in a general ward. His chances were slim to none and he has made a great recovery considering. Hope you dad's okay. Look after yourself too. x

I don't work in an ICU but I have seen a lot of them over the last few weeks and from what I can see, progress can be "slow" I asked how long a typical stay might be, and the nurse said it can be very quick if the patient improves quickly, and it can be longer.

The problem will be that he is weak from the surgery and I found that they put patients under sedation (and/or paralysis) to allow the patient to rest. He said that sometimes its like the patient doesn't sleep at all, IYSWIM, so sedating them allows their body to recover.

I think overall it is a "how long is a piece of string" question. But I would suggest having a chat with the nurses and the doctors. They should be willing to answer your questions for you.

I do think that pneumonia recovery is quite slow.

Sending lots of positive vibes to your dad and his family x

Thanks to everyone for your replies.

yesterday my dad was taken off sedation and seemed to be a little more responsive,but very slowly and almost like he was paralysed. He has absolutely no inclination to cough at all, althogh he was trying to pull the tube from his throat (like in slow motion).

The doctors think they have at last found a suitable antibiotic to fight the infection, but he still needs to be able cough for himself. I have to add that the staff are very good with us and have answered all of our questions,but some of the time we're not taking the information in and retaining it.

I had a very negative day yesterday and just couldnt see my dad getting back to the way he was before the op. he may be 76, but everyone who knows him cant believe he's that old as he's very brisk and fit.We know that the doctors wouldn't have proceeded with the operation if they hadn't thought he was fit enough,it's just taking so long .i asked yesterday about trachy something or other and they said they woulddiscuss this with us around Wednesday. sorry for going on and on, i'm just at a loss right now as to what to do.our family are always the "fixers" and we cant fix this.

thanks again for your replies and kindness

xx

Hi, my dad had a tumour removed from his oesophagus (? not sure about spelling) 5 years ago he is now 79. He was extremley ill before the op, unable to eat anything except soup and looked skeletal. Following the op he went into the high dependency unit and seemed to be recovering, however he appeared to have a heart attack, which probably wasn't and was moved to intensive care with an infection. It was all very scary and obviously you prepare yourself for the worst. However he recovered, came out, ate normally went back to a reasonable weight and has had 5 more years . Sadly the tumour has come back and he is declining again but seeing that he wasn't expected to survive 5 years ago he has done great. I would say try not to worry he is in the best place and he has had a MASSIVE operation which will take time.

My dad literally got home 10 mins ago after spending 6 weeks in hospital, 4 weeks of that in the critical care unit and itc.

Basically he had 1 heart attack and then was moved from our local hospital to Leicester General, where in the space of 2 hrs he suffered another heart attack, renal and respiratory failure.

They tried to put various tubes into him but the toxins from the renal failure were poisoning him and he didnt know he was doing and kept ripping out the tubes.. eventually he was put under heavy sedation and had a trachotomy fitted.

He was under heavy sedation for about 10 days though he did wake from time to time (he shouldnt have done but he did) and towards the end of the sedation he wasnt quite so out of it and he did respond by moving his hand or nodding (he is blind so only knew we were there by talking to him).

After he was brought round he had the trachotomy in for about another 10 days because he still needed some oxygen and they wouldnt take it out until he could talk with the valve attached to it.. though he never did manage to speak with the valve as it hurt him too much.

One of the hardest things for me.. was everyday we were told tomorrow we will wake him or tomorrow the trachy is coming out yet something always stopped it... we have had so many lows and a few highs over the last 6 weeks.

5 weeks ago i thought my dad wasnt coming home only 1% of people who suffer 3 types of organ failure at once recover.. he is one of the lucky ones.. to look at him tonight you wouldnt guess he had spent much of the last 6 weeks fighting for his life so dont give up hope.

Talking to my dad last week he cant remember anything after arriving at Liecester General and for that i am thankful, because i hated the thought of him hurting whilst tubes were inserted etc and all the others things he went through..

Then he went onto have another minor heart attack but anyway he has recovered and is home now .

Thanks girls for reassuring me and sharing your stories. i'm glad your dads are ok.

3d jeweller, your story sounds similar to mine.it jst seems to be taking so long for things to move forward. but thanks again to everyone for sharing your experiences. i guess it's a case of time being a healer. we have up days and down days.good visits and bad visits. tonight was a good one. i can see my dad is "back" in his eyes. they are expressing some emotion whereas before they were just staring blankly.

thanks so smuch to everyone for the support

xx