People who have had to see a loved one in the hospital intensive care room (ICU) know the stress of such an experience. It can put a lot of things into perspective, and perhaps make you think about life. Life hangs in the balance in this room. Critical care specialists do everything they can to save lives. Emotions can be strong in such situations because you may think that the ICU specialist is not tending to your loved one, but that is not the case. Their responsibility is to save lives and they give it their all to save a life, both your loved one’s and someone else’s too, who is someone else’s loved one.

Hospital Intensive Care Units: What is it?

An Intensive Care Unit or ICU is a dedicated unit in a hospital where there are advanced medical technologies operated by a team of trained and professional doctors to cater to patients whose conditions are critical. These patients need constant monitoring and intensive medical interventions, such as people recovering from traumatic injuries, major surgeries, or infections of a similar magnitude. The environment of such an area is characterized by round-the-clock vigilance and immediate response if the condition of the patient deteriorates.

The Role of Critical Care Specialists

These specialists also called intensivists are a significant part of the hospital intensive care unit team. These doctors are highly skilled and have years of training and professional experience in managing complex cases that involve multiple organ systems. They work together with ICU specialists, nurses, respiratory therapists, and other healthcare professionals to provide special care to the patients. Their tasks include:

• Keeping track of vital signs to check for abnormalities.
• Direct life-saving treatments such as advanced cardiac support, mechanical ventilation, or dialysis.
• Managing several medical teams to curate personalized treatment plans for the patients.
• Giving strength to the families of the patients during these challenging times.

Technologies in the ICUs

As medical science is progressing, so is the technology for saving lives. There are devices in there ranging from infusion pumps to advanced imaging devices. Critical care specialists use these devices to manage complex medical scenarios. With the help of remote monitoring systems and tele-ICU steups, the specialists to make critical decisions even when they are not physically in the unit.

Some Survival Stories

Some people have been gifted a new lease of life in hospital intensive care rooms. They are indeed emotional and are a testament to how far medical enhancements have come. 

Nitaidas Mukherjee: Surviving 36 Days in Life Support

A well-known then 52-year-old social worker, Nitaidas Mukherjee, in the early days of the Coronavirus lockdown in 2020, had been battling the virus for over two weeks in AMRI Hospital, Kolkata. He worked as a critical care consultant there and ran an NGO rescuing the homeless and the destitute. When he was brought to the hospital, he was struggling to breathe and had a fever.

He tested positive for the virus the following evening. Going off oxygen even for a sip of water became difficult for the man. After sedation, he was put on a ventilator. He woke after three weeks and it took the doctors even longer to unhook the machine that helped save his life.

The Story of Sheela Devi

Sheela was admitted to the Advanced Trauma Center of PGIMER after a 70-foot-tall peepul tree fell on her. After the incident, she was in an altered sensorium with multiple grievous injuries. She was shifted to the ICU and underwent radio imaging of her spine and head. The results of the imaging showed extradural haemorrhage with cerebral oedema. There were also multiple facio-maxillary fractures and wedge compression fractures in the spine area. She was put into ventilation and tracheotomized on the fourth day of her admission, that is July 12, 2022. Her sensorium improved and she was taken ventilator on July 26, 2022. 

Gradually, she was shifted to the ward under Neurology Care for further management, where she responded well to all the interventions. She remained hemodynamically stabilized and was discharged after being in treatment for one month.

Recovery from Multiple Brain Strokes

In July 2024, a Delhi businessman survived multiple brain strokes and haemorrhages to tell the tale. In such cases, the chances of survival are from 1 to 5%. The man collapsed in a Delhi mall, and when he was brought to the hospital, he was declared to be in a state of comatose. He had a fever, multiple seizures, fluctuating blood pressure, and his stomach was swelling because the part of the brain that controls the working of the other organs was damaged. With anti-seizure medications, physiotherapy, and treatment, the man got out of the coma in two months. He regained stability soon after. He was at Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurgaon.

Conclusion

Hospital intensive care units are more than just dedicated rooms. SN Super Speciality Hospital’s critical care and ICU specialists are the most experienced in Rajasthan. They fight and persistently tend to the problems of the patients to save their lives. The stories of the people who have survived can put faith in people going through such troubling times, that there is always light at the end of the tunnel.