Walking Home From The ICU

The “Walking Home from ICU” episode with Caleigh was so inspirational. I am nurse and experienced an unexpected long hospitalization in an ICU and was on a ventilator for 15 days. I experienced many hallucinations and was traumatized by the inability to communicate. My delirium trauma still persists when I go to work a year later. It’s better but I still have triggers. I hope to inspire our ICU to consider a change in practice. Thank you for discussing this important aspect of health.

I’m a nurse in a small medical ICU. I’ve been searching for a way to do more, a way to know that what we’re doing is actually helping to heal the patient. This podcast is exactly what I need. I can’t stop listening. I can’t stop shaking my head in awe. I always knew mobility was medicine but I did not realize how powerful of a medicine it was. This is my new gospel.

So many of us who survived the ICU were never told about Post Intensive Care Syndrome (PICS), or how severely it might affect us and our families. Even more distressing than that, so many ICU staff seem either not to know about PICS at all, or not to really grasp the severity of it. Kali Dayton advocates for us. She advocates to the medical profession to really look at and see what’s going on and challenges them to do better, and she advocates to our friends and families to understand the depth and complexity of what we went through (and what we may still be going through), even though so many people see just surviving as a sign of success. I am incredibly grateful to Kali and this podcast.

Kali is so knowledgeable and passionate about changing how we do things in the ICU! EVERYONE needs to know so much of what she discusses on this podcast and the way she elevates patient voices is outstanding. Keep up the great work, and keep being a game-changer!