For many people involvement with intensive care is a daunting experience. For some it's part of the care plan after major surgery but for many others it's a sudden and unexpected event.
You find yourself in an alien environment unlike any you've known before where patients are connected to all kinds of machines and drips, where you might not be able to tell day from night and where there's constant noise and activity.
The people that work in the ICU do an amazing job, but even when patients are on the road to recovery they still have a long way to go before they're fully better. Depending on how ill the patient has been, recovery can take a year or more.
Knowing what might lie ahead and also that you're not alone in what you're going through can be a great help for both patients and relatives.
Patients' experiences
Andrea
I have been married over 30 years have 2 children a son of 28 with his own home and life and a daughter of 19 a student with a busy social life. We were all trying to get on with life after the birth and death of our first grandchild, my sons' daughter, realising Christmas was only 3 weeks away I was trying to do what mum's do to get Christmas for the family…
Anthony
In March 2010 I came down with a nasty stomach bug whilst on holiday in France. By the time I got home a few days later I felt weak and feverish; my chest was aching. I spent 2 days in bed at home thinking I had a bad dose of man-flu. But my respiratory rate then started to climb and my wife took me to the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford…
Barbara B
On the morning of 17th July 2007 I was particularly happy. Summer Term had just ended so I had 6 weeks of holiday from my Teaching Assistant job ahead, my husband was coming back from a 3 week research visit to Australia on Friday and my first grandchild was due in August. Life seemed very good…
Barbara T
I have been a brittle asthmatic since early childhood but the severity and frequency of attacks has increased over the past 14 years, resulting in several ventilated episodes in ICU. Some of the admissions have been comparatively uneventful whilst others have been more traumatic for both myself and those close to me…
Bill
I was admitted to the Conquest Hospital on 18th December 2010 with breathing problems (I had been to my GP a few days earlier with a chest infection)…
Diane
My journey began in December 2000. At this point in my life I was five days over my expected date of delivery. The baby I was due to have had taken four years to conceive, I already had two sons from a previous relationship…
Jane
In 2003, I was admitted to hospital with broncho-pneumonia and respiratory failure. Following a tracheotomy, I was in intensive care for four weeks in an induced coma…
John
I contracted meningoencephalitis in late April 2012 (the 24th to be exact). We had had a great weekend with friends and perhaps a bit too much alcohol.
Julie
Looking back on the events of 12 months ago it seems almost impossible to me that I came so close to dying, and that so many terrible things actually happened to me. Maybe that is partly because I have no personal recollection of anything, certainly not lucidly, until after the worst was over…
Kay
Life changing. Inspiring. Enlightening. All words you think would describe a 'near death' experience. You would expect to wake up every morning grateful to be alive. You would never argue with your partner/children again as you were just so happy to be with them. Like you'd been given another chance at life. Whilst lying in CCU (Critical Care Unit) I remember saying to Ben my husband "that's it, no more rowing" as well as " I'm going to eat healthy, exercise make the most of my life, do what I've always wanted to do" Well 10 months on and I haven't stuck to any of it...
Paul
I woke up July 13th 2010 with a racing heart beat, I put on my heart rate monitor i wear for the gym and had a heart rate of 203, stupidly I got ready for work and drove the 30 miles to work…
Peggy
I have very little recollection of how I entered the A&E Department of Milton Keynes General Hospital and ending up in ICU. Late evening on Saturday 25th October I do remember ringing my daughter Serena twice and leaving messages on her answerphone asking for her help…
Peter
The last thing I remember from before my accident was being at a Placebo gig at Brixton Academy the night before and advising my friend to buy a concert t-shirt because he'd never have the chance again. That was the last memory I had…
Tony
"Sickness will surely take your mind where minds can't usually go;."
Pete Townsend – Tommy (1969)
Relatives' experiences
Colin
December 13th 2003 will be etched in my life for ever. It started quite early with my friend, Terry and myself putting in a new central heating system. By five o'clock in the evening I became so tired I decided to go to bed for an hour leaving a hole in our bedroom floor which had been cut to reach the pipes for the radiator…
Mandy
My husband, a keen mountain biker, was involved in a bad fall whilst on a ride through woodland in a remote part of Aspley woods in Bow Brickhill near Milton Keynes. He sustained injuries that included a collapsed lung, head and neck injuries and later diagnosed with a compression fracture to the upper spine causing nerve damage…
Serena
Sunday 26th October 2003 - the previous evening, my husband Trevor and I had taken our 2 children, Ella (7½) and Elisha (3) to a firework display. When we got home, we didn't notice any messages on the answer phone, and went to bed. Neither of us heard the phone ring during the night, but at about 3am Trevor heard the phone beeping to notify us there was a message…
Shirley
2010 had been a good year, both my parents had celebrated their 80th birthdays and their 60th wedding anniversary, my son got married in May and we were enjoying having so many things to celebrate...