Interview Section : Healthtalkonline

Full list of topics

Reasons for admission :
Emergency admissions
Planned admissions

In the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) :
Seeing the patient in ICU for the first time
Suspending normal routines: visiting ICU every day
Uncertainty
Emotional impact on relatives & friends in ICU
Impact on children
Telling others
Relationships within and between families
Receiving information and news from doctors
Sources of information in ICU
Nursing care
Keeping a diary
Sources of support in ICU
At the bedside:
- Waiting for news
- Signs of improvement and progress
The relatives' room and overnight accommodation:
- The relatives' room
- Overnight accommodation

When someone dies :
End of life decisions
Death and bereavement:

On a general ward :
The ward environment and nursing care
Hospital discharge and rehabilitation

Life after leaving the hospital :
Supporting and caring for the ill person at home
Impact on work and finances
Attitudes to life after the hospital experience
Messages to others
Emotional impact on relatives and carers
- Emotional impact on family and friends
- Adjusting to a changed life
Support and information
- Support and information
- Lack of support and information

Search the whole site
Search in this condition

Intensive care: experiences of family & friends

People's stories

Aged 51-60

Interview 04

Interview 04

Age at Interview: 58
Sex: Female
Background: Nurse, married with three adult children. Ethnic background/nationality: White British.

Brief outline:In October 2004, her son had a motorbike accident and was admitted to ICU. He had a serious head injury and broken jaw.

More about me...

To watch or read an interview clip, click on the heading that interests you. Either a video,audio recording or text will open, depending on the clip

To close transcript boxes, click here
To print the interview’s text, click here

After her son's accident, she found it difficult to read, watch certain television programmes and, at first, felt very emotional when she heard ambulance sirens.
Print I found, even, I couldn't read. I love reading but I couldn't get past the first paragraph of anything. I couldn't watch television. I have always kept up to date with the news, that's one thing I like to do. I was totally out of touch with the news. And even now I can't watch certain things on television. If there's a violent programme or something which causes me to feel emotional inside, I can't watch it. It's stretching me too far, I'm already stretched. I don't have that give. It's coming back, it's much better than it was. If I'm driving and I can hear or see an ambulance going, I used to burst into tears at the beginning, that doesn't happen anymore. I still say a little prayer for whoever it is that they are going out to or they are taking. So I think it takes a long time for things to settle afterwards. You are changed. I've had post-traumatic stress, I know what it feels like and I know that, whilst my experience was individual to me, was individual to me, it can change the way you are and the way you react for a time, until you come back into yourself. So I feel that's what I've been doing really.

Mail to a friend