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In the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) :
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Intensive care: experiences of family & friends

People's stories

Aged 41-50

Interview 24

Interview 24

Age at Interview: 46
Sex: Female
Background: Kitchen manager, married with two adult daughters. Ethnic background/nationality: White British.

Brief outline:Her mother had cardiac arrest. She spent nine days in ICU and now lives with her daughter. She received a lot of support from her family.

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The ambulance arrived quickly and her mother was taken from Accident and Emergency to ICU within a few hours because she'd had cardiac arrest.
Print My brother was coming down to stay for a few days, sort of 21st July. And you [mother] went to answer the door about 11 o'clock at night and you collapsed straight down onto the floor. And so my sister-in-law was able to get in the door and she gave you CPR [caridopulmonary resuscitation] and then she phoned the ambulance but where we lived the firemen came and they were able to shock you twice. So it is very useful that they are trained as, not as paramedics but they are medically trained as well. And then the ambulance came. [My sister-in-law] phoned us up before the ambulance came so we came straight down because we only live up the road and we were talking to the firemen about your medication. They wanted to know everything she was on and wrote it all down and then the ambulance man took you to [the hospital] to A & E and we went straight in to the sort of reception and gave them all our details and we sat down and waited. It wasn't too long, about half an hour and then they let us in to see you and they had put a tube down your mouth. It was intubation, something like that, and you were sedated and they put a tube down your mouth and then they took you up to ICU and they made you comfortable up there. And we were able to go in pretty much after you got up there, I suppose, really, about an hour or so afterwards. And then we stayed until about four in the morning, made sure you were stable and then we came home and tried to get some sleep. And then we went back in the next day.

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