It’s day 14 that my boyfriend had been in ICU and day 6 on ECMO r/t Covid. I hate seeing him so uncomfortable. I can’t take his suffering away. I have been there everyday and I feel like I’m failing in life. His survival rate is 40-50% . He is supposed to get a Trach Friday. I hope this helps with his discomfort. They want minimum sedation. I’m afraid he will hate me for his therapy. He said do everything, he has daughters. He has brief moments where he is seemingly lucid. I try to find any words of comfort, encouragement and explanation that I can. I don’t know how to help him. I don’t know what he will remember. We have been told Ecmo will likely be for 8 weeks to 4months.
Is there anything someone could have done to help you during this time?
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CovidEcmofamily
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My brother was critically ill before Covid and was lucky to be given an ECMO bed as there are few available in certain hospitals in UK and criteria to be met. Here is a link to ECMO family support website. We wrote our family story on here to provide hope and reassurance to other families.
ecmofamilysupport.comIf you look at ECMO stories ours if the first story you will read. it’s promising that your partner is being given ECMO support. There is lots of information on this site about ICU stays and how to support relatives in ICU. I hope your partner improves.
Hi. I had Covid in mid 2020 and was already in hospital recovering from Sepsis. I was returned to ICU and put on a ventilator and sedated for about 4 weeks and then had a trachy. I was in ICU on this occassion for 10 weeks before being transfered to a community hospital to learn to stand and walk. This rehab took 8 weeks.During my time in ICU my family were told to expect the worst, but I responded to the treatments.
I obviously dont have much of a memory of what was happening, but I did have ICU delerium, so had quite vivid dreams.
Recovery is a slow process and still now I suffer fatigue, and have recently started consultation with a Long Covid team at my hospital. Its early days but had a few tests, and wait for their rehabilitation clinic appointment.
It seems everyone's experience is slightly different, but I have immense gratitude for the Doctors and nurses that treated me. It was relatively early days in treating covid patients, but they trialed a drug which proved effective, they proned me on a number of occassions to ease the pressure on my lungs. I am sure the team looking after your boyfriend will be doing all they can, but often its a waiting game to see how the patient responds.
To be honest the team looking after your partner will be in the best position to help him. It sounds positive that he is having trachy and is on minimum sedation. This will help him immensely in the short term
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Ecmo and icu
Covid-19: rough morning 
Waking up from deep sedatives in ICU.
