Facial Changes After Weaning From Sedatives

[Amy0418]

My brother has been on a ventilator and under heavy sedation since April 2nd. He received a trach last week and they have been weaning his sedatives and vent settings. He has been able to look at us and engages when we talk on the video chat the hospital provides by nodding, smiling and moving his lips. Neurologically he’s def pretty intact but his eyes looks very strange to me. He’s wide eyed and one of them kind of goes off to the side and it looks a little smaller than the other. I can’t really explain it but the look he has is as if he’s not neurologically well. Is this normal? Will this look get better over time? Anyone else have any experience with this?

[Sepsur]

Hi Amy

The sedatives used to put someone in an induced coma are incredibly powerful, because your loved one is/has been critically ill - a lot of the body’s normal processes will be misfiring, the kidneys & liver will not be clearing toxins out as quickly as normal so people can be affected by the sedation for some time. My wife said I used to pull strange faces a lot. I was also suffering from ICU delirium - so who knows what I was seeing. Part of the confusion for family members is that a patient suffering from delirium can appear to be understanding you fully but be completely confused the next. The first baffling thing that I remember was waking to a note on the glass doors in front of me which stated “You are in the Intensive Care Unit of athe Countess Of Chester Hospital” ( which was true) I knew this was a lie because I was in a Hebrew hospital on the Welsh coast near Caernofon. The ward was run by Pygmy South American nurses carrying Kalashnikovs. As you can see eloborate and weird delusions caused by the sedatives & things.

We have an information page on our web site that you may find useful.

icustepschester.org/informa...

[Amy0418 in reply to Sepsur]

Thank you for your response. He is so much better now. It's amazing how quickly he's actually healing everyday. His facial expressions are returning to almost completely pre ICU.

[Sepsur in reply to Amy0418]

That’s really good news