Inside intensive care
WHEN THE LINE BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH BECOMES DANGEROUSLY FINE, HOW DO THE PEOPLE AND MACHINES IN HOSPITALS AID YOUR BODY’S BATTLE?
Explore the beating heart of the hospital, where human and machine fight to save lives from critical illness and injury
How long would we last without healthcare? What would we do without a number to call when we are reminded how fragile life can be, or a place to go with the confidence that we will receive the best possible care from a team of professionals who know our bodies inside out? While every area of a hospital has the improvement of health at its core, there is one department that elevates the emotion, urgency and stakes of every action to a much greater level. This is the intensive care unit (ICU).
Intensive care units, otherwise known as critical care units, are special wards within hospitals where patients with life-threatening conditions can be monitored and treated. People who qualify for ICU admittance are those whose conditions are unstable. They need to be monitored constantly to ensure that any changes are noticed and acted upon before irreversible damage is done.
It’s a place nobody outside of the medical profession wishes to find themselves. Whether you are the patient yourself, relying on the tubes and machines that are taking on the role of your organs, or a visitor who can only sit at a bedside and hope that your loved one will pull through, the ICU is an undoubtedly gruelling environment. To an onlooker, the turn of every corner can overload the senses. The chaotic combination of mechanical beeps, frantic alarms and intense bedside operations are in stark contrast to the people lying still on their beds in occasional periods of eerie silence. Who knows what the next few seconds will bring?
For the various patients occupying these high-priority beds, the cause of their admission
Consultant doctors work with their team to draw conclusions about every patient
may be just as unexpected, while others might have been anticipating it, having experienced their bodies’ slow decline. Critical care follows for a range of reasons: some come straight from the operating room after undergoing major surgery; some are escorted there from the scene of an accident who may have severe burns, broken bones or organ failure and some are monitored after a serious short-term condition such as a heart attack or stroke.
To work on these specialised wards requires a combination of qualities. Called ‘intensivists’, these medical staff demonstrate an ability to adapt within a workplace where conditions are continuously changing. They need to be able to help with every case that enters through the doors and have the ability to continue performing at the highest level regardless of whether the other battles surrounding them have been victorious or not.
These marvellous medics are not only specialised in intensive care, but also have their own area of expertise to put their specific knowledge and skill set to use. To be a specialist you need to be the best of the best, and this is something that is of utmost importance in an environment where anything less could cost someone their life.
Most of us hope death is far in the future, but the reality is that nothing is guaranteed. Life is full of unexpected complications. Inside the ICU, those who are at their weakest now have a better chance of recovery than at any previous time in history. This is due to innovative life-saving technology. As knowledge of how the human body functions has grown, we’ve developed machines that have increased in effectiveness, mimicking every function of each human organ when the corresponding organ in a patient is failing. While it’s impossible to be in two places at once, electronic sensory
systems are better armed with the intelligence to respond to changes in a patient’s condition and alert staff to their bedside with alarm systems. Bedside technology is working together with the human intellect that comes with years of training. And machines can use imaging to provide a quick and clear insight into the internal functions beneath our skin, allowing staff to better decide their next step in treatment.
With experience, intensivists will have seen most cases that enter the ICU before. They know the protocol and are equipped with the tools to give patients the best chance of recovery. This applies to any disease and injury that causes the body’s functions to fail, but what happens when the ICU sees a new case?
This has become the reality recently, with the COVID-19 pandemic putting immense strain on these wards. It’s important to remember that while global focus has been on this virus, the ICU continues to see the same range of illnesses it has always had to accommodate for on top of the influx of added patients. While the world was faced with many unanswered questions as people began showing up to hospitals with the new, severe respiratory disease, the medics and their technology were able to see where the body was suffering straight away and provide breathing support through ventilators. This shows that the core principles of care in the ICU remain the same, regardless of the cause.
The intensive care that is provided around the clock in these special wards has been brought into the limelight during recent times, but as global health crises come and go, the ICU never rests. Nobody is immortal, but this everimproving system is in place to throw every effort into the healing process. Whatever the reason is, every day the ICU sees a diverse mix of talents and technologies all fighting for one thing: a second chance at life.