ICU COVID19 - cardiac arrest

[Isanadini]

Hi, my mom was hospitalized on April 13th, put on a ventilator on April18th and suffered a pneumothorax followed by a cardiac arrest. She was brought back with two cycles.

She has been on ventilator for 13 days now and yesterday (day 12) she has had her tracheostomy done and she’s stable now and off sedation. Her lungs are recovering well but due to the cardiac arrest the doctor don’t know if there’s any brain damage. I’m terrified she won’t be able to wake up. I was just wondering if anyone has a similar story? She has been through so much. I just need her to come back to us. 😔

[FamilyHistorian]

I’m 73 and back in December’19/ March’20 I was in icu following a heart attach, replacement valve, pneumonia & sepsis + other infections. I had a trachy and was sedated / ventilated for nearly 2 months.

So yes there is hope it may take some time to come round and recover at home.

[Ren2985]

My dad was on the same timeline as your mom. Ventilator for 14 days and after trach for another 14 days. After a month, my dad was off everything. 2 weeks later they found out he had a stroke on the ventilator. Recovery has been going well. It takes time and patience, but keep believing in her .

[Isanadini in reply to Ren2985]

We found out today that she has a brain bleed. 😔 they’re monitoring her.

[FamilyHistorian in reply to Isanadini]

I am sure the hospital will care for her. It is now really important that you take care of yourself.

[Hectorsdaughter]

My dad has been in hospitals since January and has a trach as well. While under sedation in icu, he apparently had a stroke which went unnoticed until the LTACH he was moved to seen it in a ctscan. The doctors told us he was not going to be the same man we knew if/when he woke up. And this was weeks into us taking him off sedation in hopes of anything(even pain) to wake him up. The doctors were discouraging and had even told me I needed to think about his quality of life and make a decision. Honestly, I would freeze my dad if it were possible. This covid thing is new and discoveries are made everyday about all kinds of sicknesses. And when that place gave up on him and told Medicare that they did all they could do, he was scheduled for discharge to a skilled nursing facility to toss him in a room and let him die basically. 3 days before he actually left, he woke up. It was a miracle. Nurses and therapist were ecstatic about how much had changed. That was in February. He’s still had a rocky road and still hasn’t fully recovered. He’s just sick of not being able to eat or drink and I can’t read lips for shit. He does dialysis and still hasn’t walked or written a thing. We’re looking forward to his trach getting capped so he can have a voice again. So have patience and stay involved in her recovery because if there’s no family that cares, it’s likely the staff will be less attentive as well. And remember that everyone heals at different paces. Just keep praying and appreciate every day we are blessed with love and each other.