Walking Home From The ICU Episode 49: The Cost of Rot
How do Hospital Acquired Pressure Injuries (HAPI) impact patient outcomes and quality of life? How can they be better prevented? Cami, our wound care specialist, shares with us penetrating insight into the reality of rotting in the ICU. Episode Transcription Kali Dayton 0:28 Today, we’re going to talk about hospital acquired pressure injuries (HAPIs). I
Learn More > from Walking Home From The ICU Episode 49: The Cost of Rot
Walking Home From The ICU Episode 48: Q&A
What do you want to know about the Awake and Walking ICU? Episode Transcription Kali Dayton 0:28 Hello again, I hope you were all staying safe out there as COVID is hitting our ICU world hard right now. I was recently contacted by Chelsey Rogers, who is the founder of the Facebook group, “Tribe RN”
My dad came down with COVID pneumonia at the end of September. We did our best to treat him at home but eventually we realized we needed to get him to a hospital. After about four days in the hospital on oxygen he crashed and needed to be put on a ventilator. We were devastated.
When they put a person on a ventilator, hospital protocol generally is to sedate and paralyze the patient. My dad was sedated and paralyzed for a total of about 17 days. He was completely immobilized. One doctor told us that my dad had one of the worst cases of COVID pneumonia he had seen in a long time. We were, of course, extremely worried. As time went on, his condition worsened. Through a series of miracles, my dad stabilized enough that they were able to give him a tracheostomy. This was the turning point where he was able to get transferred to a LTAC facility (which is a critical care facility for COVID patients).
Fortunately, through a friend, we were put in touch with Kali Dayton. We were told she has had amazing success helping people come down off sedation and the paralytic. One of the side effects of sedation is the patients experience extreme delusions and hallucinations. While we were at the LTAC, Kali was extremely helpful in helping us understand the importance of getting my dad off the paralytic and sedation quickly. She informed us that every day he was on the sedation added weeks onto his recovery. We began pressuring the staff at the LTAC to get him off the sedation. Kali has found that it is critical to get a ventilated patient up and moving and you can’t unless they are off sedation. The staff at the LTAC were very hesitant to take my dad off sedation, at times even telling us he was off it, when in fact, he was still on sedation.
Heidi Lanthen
Utah, USA
Perception Versus Reality: Debunking The Myths About Medically-Induced Comas
By clicking the Subscribe button, you agree to this site's Privacy Policy. Your information is always kept safe.