ER, Intensive Care procedure in UK hospitals

aruna

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An elderly woman with a serious head injury delivered to ER, has a life-saving operation. For how long might she be in Intensive Care, and can she have visitors while there? Do visitors have to put on full protective gear (overall, gloves, cap etc) if they visit her? How long can they stay with her? If she is in a coma, can visitors stay at her bedside? Or what else might happen?
Feedback from US experts also welcome, as I doubt the procedures would be all that different.
 

firedrake

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An elderly woman with a serious head injury delivered to ER, has a life-saving operation. For how long might she be in Intensive Care, and can she have visitors while there? Do visitors have to put on full protective gear (overall, gloves, cap etc) if they visit her? How long can they stay with her? If she is in a coma, can visitors stay at her bedside? Or what else might happen?
Feedback from US experts also welcome, as I doubt the procedures would be all that different.

Yes, she can have visitors. I think that visiting hours don't apply in the ER and it may be that if her condition is really serious, visiting hours may not apply in ICU. I don't think protective gear is worn.
How long she's in the ICU I guess would depend on her condition after the operation.
 

Albedo

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Patients stay in ICU until their condition stabilises enough that they don't need intensive support (e.g. ventilation, inotropes, or intensive monitoring). An elderly person is going to be a lot more fragile after major neurosurgery than a young, healthy person, and will be there longer.

Visitors are allowed, but usually only one or two at a time. They wouldn't need to wear protective gear unless the patient was immunocompromised or alternately infectious, in which case they'd be in an isolation room and policies about visitors would vary by facility.

First degree relatives would be allowed to stay with the patient if her condition was dire, usually the next of kin.
 

Bolero

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Some hospitals, possibly all (don't know) also offer a basic room for relatives to sleep in.
No flowers or anything like that allowed in Intensive Care btw. Can't remember if cards are allowed or not. Mostly a matter of hygiene, also partially a matter of clutter that gets in the way.
 

Bolero

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Goodness me, yes. I should have picked up on that, of course it's A&E. I think I'll blame not picking up on A&E on recently having had more contact with hospitals via American TV than in person. (So the year is actually going well.... :) ).
 

aruna

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Goodness me, yes. I should have picked up on that, of course it's A&E. I think I'll blame not picking up on A&E on recently having had more contact with hospitals via American TV than in person. (So the year is actually going well.... :) ).

Yes, me too. Plus working in a German hospital, where it's Emergency Reception in translation!
So, well caught.
 

Zelenka

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What I remember from being in ICU may or may not be helpful as I was put in there because the doctors didn't believe I'd recover from surgery as well as I did, so I actually didn't really need to be in there and was moved out after one night. But I was in a single 'area' out of about five in the one room, and the thing I really remember was that there were no curtains - Glasgow Royal Infirmary ICU has you in a kind of glass box with a sliding door and the nurses can flip a switch that turns the glass from transparent to opaque. It was pretty neat. There wasn't a lot of room as most of the space was taken up by equipment, IVs, monitors etc and there were units / worktops on either side of the bed with cupboards for supplies. Flowers weren't allowed in any of the wards in any of the hospitals I was in, let alone in ICU.

I don't know about cards or visitors as no one came to visit me or sent me cards but I was allowed to take a phonecall.

No idea if any of that is helpful.
 

Los Pollos Hermanos

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Can't help with the ICU stuff (sorry), but going to A&E is also sometimes referred to as going to Casualty (there's a TV programme of the same name, which started in the late 80s-ish). Also, we say that we're going to hospital, rather than THE hospital.

LPH.
 

williemeikle

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Can't help with the ICU stuff (sorry), but going to A&E is also sometimes referred to as going to Casualty (there's a TV programme of the same name, which started in the late 80s-ish). Also, we say that we're going to hospital, rather than THE hospital.

LPH.

Whereas where I'm from in Scotland we always say going to THE Hospital.
 

firedrake

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Whereas where I'm from in Scotland we always say going to THE Hospital.

I'm down in Wiltshire and we say 'the' hospital too. I can't say I've heard it said without 'the' wherever I've lived in England.
 

Parametric

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I'd definitely say going to hospital. I think going to the hospital implies a specific, singular hospital, whereas going to hospital could be going to any hospital. Here in Bristol there are about a billion, so if you said, "I'm going to the hospital," I'd say, "Which one?" :)
 

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I have a friend in Kent who says it without the.
 

williemeikle

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I'd definitely say going to hospital. I think going to the hospital implies a specific, singular hospital, whereas going to hospital could be going to any hospital. Here in Bristol there are about a billion, so if you said, "I'm going to the hospital," I'd say, "Which one?" :)

Which is probably the difference. I'm from a rural area where there is really only one hospital to go to.
 

mirandashell

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We say 'going to hospital' as well. 'The hospital' would mean a specific building.
 

Los Pollos Hermanos

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Agreed. Hospital is generalised, whilst THE hospital would refer to the one and only hospital within a very large area. There's a small-town hospital (no A&E) a mile or so from where I live, but the larger towns within half an hour or so have A&Es. For more specialist specialisms :D you'd have to go an hour or so to Manchester.
 

Zelenka

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I say 'the hospital' as well, but I go to five different hospitals within the greater Glasgow area. But then originally I'm from Fife where there was only the one main hospital, so I suppose maybe I picked it up from there.
 

melindamusil

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In response to an earlier comment-
I was in an ICU in the US for about two and a half weeks. I received a LOT of cards and flowers during that time, but like one of the earlier posts mentioned, flowers were not allowed in the ICU rooms. I don't actually remember it (I was unconscious for most of that time) but I've been told that they were allowed around the nurses desk, so the flowers were arranged there for everyone to enjoy.