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What critical care is
Critical care is medical care for people with life-threatening injuries and illnesses. It usually happens in an intensive care unit (ICU), where a team of specially trained health care providers gives 24-hour care. That means machines watching your vital signs constantly, and usually specialized treatments.
Who needs it
Anyone with a life-threatening illness or injury, such as:
- severe burns, severe bleeding or serious injuries — from car crashes, falls or shootings;
- heart attack or heart failure;
- kidney failure or respiratory failure;
- stroke;
- sepsis, shock or serious infections, including COVID-19;
- recovery from certain major surgeries.
What you may see in the ICU
| Equipment | What it does |
|---|---|
| Catheters | flexible tubes that put fluids into the body or drain them out |
| Dialysis machines | "artificial kidneys" for people with kidney failure |
| Feeding tubes | give nutritional support |
| Intravenous (IV) tubes | deliver fluids and medicines |
| Monitors | check vital signs and display them |
| Oxygen therapy | gives extra oxygen to breathe |
| Tracheostomy tubes | breathing tubes placed through a surgical opening in the front of the neck into the windpipe |
| Ventilators | breathing machines that move air in and out of the lungs, for respiratory failure |
These machines can keep you alive, but many can also raise the risk of infection.
Plan ahead
People in critical care are sometimes unable to communicate. That's why it's important to have an advance directive in place: it helps your providers and family make important decisions — including end-of-life decisions — if you can't make them yourself.
Sources
Based on the MedlinePlus health topic "Critical Care," National Library of Medicine; a work of the United States government in the public domain.
Лицензия: CC0 1.0 (общественное достояние) · По материалам medlineplus.gov
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