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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

Mr. Charles C. suffered from an olfactory hallucination.

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

Video Interview

TRANSCRIPT

And 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: 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 that was very difficult. 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, or 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.

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

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