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Intensive care: experiences of family & friends

People's stories

Aged 31-40

Interview 02

Interview 02

Age at Interview: 39
Sex: Female
Background: Customer services advisor, married, no children. Ethnic background/nationality: White British.

Brief outline:In 2003 her husband had an accident while cycling on his mountain bike in woods close to their home. The accident left him with a serious head injury, fractures to his neck and spine, and a collapsed lung.

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When they lessened the sedation, her husband was so violently agitated they had to increase it again, but he soon started improving and would communicate by squeezing her hand.
Print For the first week or so he was under heavy sedation, but the plan was to try and bring him out of that, to assess his condition and improve his general situation. As soon as they started to lower the sedation he became very agitated. I was surprised by his physical strength, despite being so badly injured and unconscious as well. He kept trying to pull everything out of him and get out of the bed. So in the end the nurses had to lift the mattress on to the floor for his own safety and were constantly monitoring and holding down his hands to stop him pulling everything out. After a couple of days of this they had to bandage his hands. He was getting so distressed that they took the sedation back up again, just to give him a bit more time, for the head injury to adjust itself. It was towards the end of the second week that he began to make improvements. I was encouraged to bring in familiar things such as his aftershave and music. Things that were familiar to him would hopefully bring him round a bit. One of the biggest turnarounds was when [my husband's] dad was trying to communicate with him. He seemed to understand certain things, but obviously couldn't speak because of the trache. He was being asked questions and holding his hand, he managed a squeeze once for, “Yes” and twice for, “No”. That was really encouraging to feel that he did still understand what we were saying and had some awareness of what was going on. We tried to at that time explain what had happened. But with all the medication he was being given I don't suppose he remembers much about it at all. The third week his condition began to improve quite a bit. Some of the machines began to be removed and he was moved further down the ward, out of the critical area of the IC unit. It felt like you were getting further towards the door and out of the unit. It was that week that they were able to remove the tracheostomy to enable him to speak. Which was really good. And he had speech therapy. This was one of the best times from the whole experience. He was still very weak but making really good progress and started physiotherapy; just gentle exercises lying on the bed. On one day he was lifted out to stand briefly and then put into a chair by the side of the bed. He was making really good progress and was really positive about it.

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