7 years later...

[katieellen]

Finally getting around to writing a post.

I was in ICU in 2010 when I was 17. I had an asthma attack and had to be intubated. I was in a coma for 7 days and in ICU for 3 weeks. I still remember my hallucinations so clearly 7 years on, some of them were terrifying! I still find it surreal that I was asleep for so long, unaware of most things. However, when I woke I spoke (well wrote as I had a tracheostomy) of things that had been spoke about while I was in a coma. I am now a student nurse hoping to work in ICU when I qualify. I have had a placement on there and found it so rewarding that I can empathise with patients.

Katie

[Lacemaker]

Wishing you all the best in your chosen career and yes you are absolutely right, you will have the empathy to understand what patients are going through.

[katieellen in reply to Lacemaker]

Thank you!

[ianprothero]

Great to hear that you are using those awful sensations to inspire such a positive outcome.

I have never been able to adequately express what I went through to those who haven't been through it - there are no comparisons. It took me over 4 years before I could think positively about my time and do something useful - well done you.

[stevet11753]

Good luck to you in your chosen career! I visited the ICU a few months after my discharge and it was so emotional to meet and thank the nurses who had cared for me when I was critically ill. One of them had been looking after me the first 48 hours, when I was in coma on the brink of life and death, and it was the first time one of her patients had the opportunity to return and thank her. I hope you also will be so blessed if you take on this demanding, but so rewarding career.