Hospital Information for the newbie survivor
If you have never experienced severe illness with prolonged hospitalization and recovery, you need a guide to help you navigate the medical world. As unusually young survivors, we had no knowledge of navigating illness and recovery before our injuries
Overall Hospital Information:
ICU- you don’t get to choose where you end up in the ICU. this is chosen by your ambulance team, your helicopter team, or whoever else took you to get emergency care. The ambulance & helicopter are required to take you to the closest hospital that provides the proper level of care. This is not necessarily the BEST hospital, but it will provide the right level of care to get you stable.
Inpatient rehab- after you get moved out of the ICU, if your hospital has an inpatient rehab program, they will automatically start you at inpatient rehab in their hospital. But suppose you are unhappy with your hospital, or just questioning whether it is the best hospital for your area. In that case, you can elect to be transferred to a different hospital that has inpatient rehab...
Outpatient rehab- depending on the severity of your injury and the options in your area, you may have choices of:
1. full-day neuro rehab programs where you get occupational, physical, and speech therapy all at one location...
2. Singular outpatient therapies- If your injury was not as severe...
Doctors you are going to see:
Try to get all of these doctors in the same hospital system...
Timeline of recovery
You are probably desperately wondering when you will be "better." Unfortunately, there is no way to give a measured time for recovery.
