Learning to breathe again

I was running up hill at times yesterday. As might be expected, this required me to breathe even harder than when running on the flat. It got me thinking about what it was like for ventilated patients.

Some critically ill patients end up on a ventilator for weeks or months at a time. For some patients their condition will mean that they are ventilator dependent for the rest of their lives, However, this is not the case for all ventilator dependent patients. Where appropriate, staff work with patients to get them strong enough to breathe without a ventilator. This involves training the breathing muscles to get strong again. One way to do this is to reduce the level of breathing support that the ventilator gives the patient for a period of time.

Patients are often very aware of their own breathing when on a ventilator. I imagine this is similar to feeling breathless when running. So, reducing the support to make the patient work harder must be similar to making them feel as if they are running up hill. I have made a choice to go out running, and experience the discomfort of being extremely breathless. The patients we look after did not make that choice, and have to cope with the breathlessness on top of everything else that is going on with them at the same time.

I am in training with colleagues to run the Bournemouth marathon. We want to raise money to fund our ongoing research related to improving outcomes for our critically ill patients. Please show your support by texting SFXE99 Â£2 to 70070 to support and the XE research, and the families of injured Sherpas that helped us carry out our research expeditions.