Walking Home from The ICU Episode 19: Walking On ECMO Part 2
In Part II, Tyler and Amber Lintz share with us how Tyler was admitted for severe septic shock, pneumonia, and ARDS and eventually needed ECMO but was still allowed to keep walking. Tyler also shares with us how he returned to being a firefighter 3 months after ECMO. Episode Transcription Tyler Lintz The days
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Walking Home from The ICU Episode 18: Walking On ECMO Part 1
Tyler and Amber Lintz share with us how Tyler was admitted for severe septic shock, pneumonia, and ARDS and eventually needed ECMO but was still allowed to keep walking. Tyler also shares with us how he returned to being a firefighter 3 months after ECMO. Episode Transcription Kali Dayton Tyler, Amber thank you so
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Walking Home from The ICU Episode 17: Walking On The Ventilator For 17 Days
Joan Johnston was admitted for ARDS and remained on the ventilator for 17 days. Here, she shares with us what it was like to be awake, walking, and even showering while intubated. Episode Transcription Kali Dayton Hello, and welcome back. Today we’re going to be talking to Joan Johnston. She was a 38 year
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Walking Home from The ICU Episode 16: Defending the Defenseless
In this episode, we look at how James was admitted for severe mycoplasma pneumonia that turned into mild ARDS and how his Downs Syndrome and autism inspired the ICU team to get creative to keep him awake and walking on the ventilator. Episode Transcription Kali Dayton I want to tell the story for someone
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Walking Home from The ICU Episode 15: Walking Through Severe ARDS
Bryan Carter shares his story about being admitted for severe pneumonia that became severe ARDS, how he was allowed to be awake and walking on the ventilator until he was proned and how his treatment impacted his outcomes. Episode Transcription Kali Dayton Brian Carter is an ARDS survivor. He was admitted for speared streptococcal
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Over the last few years I have become aware of the PICS (post-intensive care syndrome) condition and the very serious negative impact that it has on our ICU survivors. I have become much more aware of the potential negative impact of anxiety, depression, PTSD and cognitive dysfunction. Many patients whom we consider saves in the sense they leave the ICU alive have many issues that most people would consider far from a successful experience. Their lives are often dramatically changed in a very negative fashion.
I am a professor of medicine and have been an ICU director for over forty years. What I find very disturbing in my own experience and that of many other intensivists is that this outcome is generally considered acceptable; the patient survived and will get better with time. We have little access to these patients and almost zero information about their condition unless they are unfortunate enough to return to our ICUs. Very few of us have a PICS clinic where we would have a chance to better understand the challenges that some of our patients encounter, and there are very few systems in place to provide feedback to us as ICU clinicians. Therefore, we are blissfully ignorant of the many challenges that a substantial number of our survivors encounter. This is a major problem. The vast majority of ICU survivors and their families will experience cognitive, emotional and physical symptoms which often have devastating impacts on their lives. At this time, with PICS clinics being a rarity, there is no reasonable mechanism for intensivists to have a solid perspective on the frequency and severity of this condition.
How patients and their families are treated in the ICU often has a major impact on how the patient and families survive post discharge. It is generally agreed that most sedation infusions, particularly benzodiazepines, frequently have higher incidences of delirium and post-discharge dysfunction. There are a few hospitals in this country where sedative infusions are rarely used and the incidence of the complications described above are dramatically decreased. I have visited one of these hospitals and was amazed to see how effectively patients on maximum ventilator support can be managed, even walking without sedative infusions. In an effort to explore this treatment option in greater detail I have identified Kali Dayton. She is a nurse practitioner who has practiced in this Awake and Walking ICU for many years and is an amazing source of information on this topic. After extensive discussion with many colleagues, administration and many others, and reviewing the major potential benefits of the program for our patients, we have decided to introduce this program into our hospital.
Peter J. Murphy, MD, FCCP, MRCPI, BSc
Perception Versus Reality: Debunking The Myths About Medically-Induced Comas
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