My dad was ventilated in ICU when I was 27…

A message from Critical Care Research Group Founder Professor John Fraser on the group’s world-first ICU of the Future Project.

My dad was ventilated in ICU when I was 27…

I still have his confused and scared hand written notes he scribbled whilst ventilated - fears, thoughts and hallucinations. I was the wee brother who was generally never listened to until that point- my brother was a "proper doctor” - he had a tweed jacket, wore ties and had a practice where he did sensible hours and ladies brought him his lunch. My sister - well, she was my sister so she was alwasy the boss - no questions asked.

Suddenly, for the first time, I was in charge of something - anything - in my family.

It was here I developed a realisation that my chosen career of ICU had so many places that we had to do better.

Together with my team at the Critical Care Research Group. Anna-Liisa Sutt, with help from Ken Whelan, we started to tackle the unrecognised mountain of pain that is ICU Delirium.

We learned that we were missing the diagnosis and had no easily applicable "test" to diagnose or screen. We created a language free app with help from Dylan Flaws and colleagues in #eesti #japan #psychiatry, and The Common Good and CEO Michael Hornby OAM, and Bernard Curran, which we are now running internationally.

We realised there were many factors in delirium we could not change - but environment was a huge problem.

We were taking the sickest of the sick, and at their most critical moment of their life putting them into an environment that would worsen mortality, increase the rate of PTSD to higher levels seen in Vietnam veterans and be associated with mental illness and inability to return to work . Until now , patients and relatives didn’t have a say in the design of the place they would be looked after at their most vulnerable point.

5 years of intense research working and learning from our patients, their relatives, our nursing, allied health, medical , cleaning staff, with help from Metro North Health and Queensland University of Technology, taught us so much.

During the "quiet nights" in ICU, the sound is the equivalent to a lawn mower starting up 83 times. During the day, the sound the patient hears is the same as sleeping in a motorway. The light in day time is too dark to read- at night too bright to sleep. A rigid system developed for the clinical staff and the budget holders - not for the critically ill.

Delighted that Critical Care Research Group led this #ICUofTheFuture build - opened December 14 2022 to tears of joy from former patients - a new future where our patients co design with us, so that we personalise their care at their very darkest time. This is only the start in the revolutiuon of personalised ICU care - that will ensure our patients #thrivenotjustsurvive.

(L:R) James Craven; Michael Hornby OAM, CEO of The Common Good; Past-ICU patient Rebecca Craven, CCRG Founder and Director Professor John Fraser; and Oystein Tronstad, ICU of the Future Project Manager