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Charles C.

Mr. Charles C. had a short stay in the intensive care unit (3 days). He was sedated with morphine for pain management and relief of shortness of breath but was not in a comatose state. He compared this stay to a previous one-month hospitalization in the ICU in 2012.

VIDEO

Misunderstanding is disturbing

Mr. Charles C. says that he sometimes found it difficult to make the clinical team understand that what he was feeling, whatever the cause, was powerful and disturbing.

Video Interview

TRANSCRIPT

E : Yeah, 2012 was burned. My hands and a little bit my face. And that was more serious, because I was affected physically. I mean I was in (location 1), but I didn’t feel it at all. And the (-) there, it was a more difficult thing. I was in a coma for four days and I was losing weight and it was difficult to feed me. And I was on morphine quite heavily. And that gave me all sorts of problems uhm one, the most severe, was the sense of smell and of taste, which I reckon was augmented a hundred times. So, one little grain of sugar in water was impossible to drink. Smells, I could / I felt I could smell like a wolf smells. I could / I knew what was happening around me, not from a directional point of view, but uhm that was very difficult and it // and the only problem I had there then, was getting over to the people who were dealing with me (-) that I couldn’t eat these things or drink these things, because the taste was too strong. And each time I would take a glass of even (water) down, orange juice, I would be vomiting, because of the strength of the taste. That was something that I found in you know / it was I guess about a day and a half before I really managed to convince someone that I wasn’t exaggerating. And we think that the reason was the morphine, but it may not have been. It may have been swollen mouth or whatever. I : You were able to speak? E : Oh I was able to speak, yes. Yes, I had no problem with that. I was fully / when I’d come out of the coma, I was fully conscious and alert. But I had problems with the taste and the smell (-) and the nights with hallucinations all the way through the nights, ugh awful! But apart from that, the physical support was fabulous. I mean, I had never been through that experience before, but the // being in soins intensifs in the (name of the hospital), was very very good.

Other experiences by Charles C.

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Charles C.

Mr. Charles C. had a short stay in the intensive care unit (3 days). He was sedated with morphine for pain management and relief of shortness of breath but was not in a comatose state. He compared this stay to a previous one-month hospitalization in the ICU in 2012.

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Charles C.

Mr. Charles C. talks about the efficiency of the ICU.

Despite the constant noise of the ICU, Mr. Charles C. felt safe and was impressed with the efficiency of the clinical team.

General perception / overview of the intensive care

Experiences in Intensive Care

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Charles C.

Mr. Charles C. used headphones against noise.

Mr. Charles C. used headphones to avoid being bothered by the noise.

General perception / overview of the intensive care

Experiences in Intensive Care

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Charles C.

Mr. Charles C. suffered from an olfactory hallucination.

Mr. Charles C. remembers very unpleasant hallucinations of smell and taste.

State of consciousness and memory issues

Experiences in Intensive Care

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Charles C.

Mr. Charles C. remained awake in the ICU and remembers well.

Because he was not in a coma, Mr. Charles C. remembered his ICU stay.

State of consciousness and memory issues

Experiences in Intensive Care

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Charles C.

The team did not come quickly enough

Mr. Charles C. sometimes felt lonely and insecure at night because the team did not come immediately.

Communication issues in the intensive care unit (ICU)

Experiences in Intensive Care

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Charles C.

Misunderstanding is disturbing

Mr. Charles C. says that he sometimes found it difficult to make the clinical team understand that what he was feeling, whatever the cause, was powerful and disturbing.

Communication issues in the intensive care unit (ICU)

Experiences in Intensive Care

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Charles C.

Decisions must be explained

Mr. Charles C. didn't have the strength to fight the medical decisions, but in the end he understood that it was for his own good.

Good to know to improve intensive care unit (ICU) patient experience

Experiences in Intensive Care

View all experiences

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