NEUROCRITICAL CARE ADVOCACY New Neurocritical Care Stories of Hope Offer Resource for Patients and Families on the NCS Website By Sarah Livesay, DNP and Tamer Abdelhak, MD The NCS Stories of Hope detail the lived day thanks to the unconditional support of my family and friends. experience and recovery of patients who I was discharged from rehab in April of 2009 and continued received care in the Neuro ICU. They are to outpatient rehab throughout the summer. remind caregivers, patients, and families that, while a stay in the ICU can be devastating and The turning point, the day I put the accident behind me and life changing, there is hope for recovery and started seeing life positively again, was the day I earned back my life after illness. These stories, two of which driver’s license. After a year of hiatus, I returned to college and are provided below, will be available on the got my degree in Communications Media – Video Productions, NCS website under the Patient Resources an achievement I am extremely proud of. One of my proudest Sarah Livesay, DNP heading. moments was when the Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey, Kim Gadagno, announced to the whole crew: “This is the hardest Please share these stories with other caregivers working man in the room,” recognizing my hard work. and patients in your Neuro ICU as beacons of hope in the journey of recovery. If you know Today, I live a normal life. I live independently and enjoy playing of anyone who would like to submit a Story of sports with my friends regularly. Overcoming this long uphill Hope, please direct the inquiry or story to us struggle made me a better man, more responsible, focused, driven, at info@neurocriticalcare.org. thoughtful and caring. I am stronger than ever. My journey was truly a blessing in disguise. Alex Baldwin’s Story of Hope Tamer Abdelhak, I was a 21-year-old college student with If I had one message to send to any traumatic brain injury patient MD one year left to graduate when an accident or their family, it would be a quote that came from my best friend changed my life forever. On October 21, that he said to me when I was trying to overcome my own mind 2008, I was struck by a motor vehicle resulting in a severe head and I made into a necklace that I wear just below my tracheotomy trauma and multiple life threatening injuries including multiple scar every day to this day that says “do work.” Do work and you skull fractures, blood accumulation between the skull and the will overcome any obstacle that stands in your way throughout brain (subdural hematomas), blood around the brain tissue your rehabilitation. Get up and do work. (subarachnoid hemorrhages), and extensive brain tissue bruising (contusions) and swelling. Kristine S.’s Story of Hope It happened so quickly that I don’t even remember how it My road to recovery was long and I was admitted to the University happened or what happened. All that I know is the story of my of Massachusetts (UMass) Neurological Intensive Care Unit. I survival, my family’s resilience, and our strong faith in our faithful can’t say that I remember much over the month of my ICU stay God. I am learning more and more each day about my incredible but I am very grateful to everyone who was involved in my care journey. and rooted for me. The initial treatment consisted of removing portions of skull bones on both sides to relieve pressure of the It was one day around Christmas, 2012. I had left work feeling underlying brain (craniectomy). Electrodes were placed within lousy, like I was coming down with something. The next morning, the brain tissue to monitor my intracranial pressure and guide I had fever, back pain and a severe headache. My family took me the medical treatment. My hospital stay was complicated by to a local hospital. I was confused and disoriented. The initial respiratory failure, pneumonia, high blood pressure, high blood tests showed that I might have an infection and CT scans of my sugar, infl ammation of the peripheral veins and severe confusion brain and stomach were normal. I was admitted to the hospital and agitation, just to name a few. and was started on antibiotics. On that same night, my nurse noted that my pupils were not the same size and not reacting to I was having diffi culty breathing on my own and required light. Another CT scan of my brain was done and showed swelling continuous machine support through a tracheostomy tube and brain herniation. (breathing tube inserted through the neck to the lungs). Because of the prolonged hospital stay, I was weak, malnourished, and had I was intubated and air-lifted by a helicopter to the Neurological diffi culty swallowing therefore a feeding tube through the stomach Intensive Care Unit at UMass Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts wall (PEG tube) had to be placed to provide me with my daily where I arrived already in a comatose condition. Another brain caloric requirements. CT scan showed progression of the swelling and herniation blocking the drainage of the spinal fl uid (CSF) from my brain. It By the time I was medically stable enough for discharge, I also showed signs indicating a severe infection in my brain called continued to need breathing and feeding tubes and obtained meningoencephalitis. A neurosurgeon placed an EVD (external intense physical, occupational and speech training and ventricular drain) to help drain the CSF and decrease the pressure rehabilitation. After beating the odds and overcoming in my head. I had already been started on antibiotics to fi ght multiple complications, I was fi nally discharged to an inpatient the infection and other medications to decrease the swelling and rehabilitation facility over a month later on November 24, only to prevent seizures from occurring. face my biggest challenge yet. During my fi ve months of inpatient rehabilitation, I had to learn how to walk, talk and function Despite all that, the pressure in my head kept rising and I was again. My biggest enemy was time, as minutes, hours and days started on therapeutic hypothermia (my core body temperature seemed longer than they actually were. I powered through every was decreased to around 33° C) in an attempt to decrease the 20
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