‘Being critical means finding fault with the arguments, analyses, interpretations etc. of others. ‘ 3. ‘Being critical involves always supporting your arguments with clear factual evidence.

Critical mass, in nuclear physics, the minimum amount of a given fissile material necessary to achieve a self-sustaining fission chain reaction under stated conditions.

Some common synonyms of critical are captious, carping, censorious, faultfinding, and hypercritical.

Serious – Vital signs may be unstable and not within normal limits. Patient is acutely ill. Indicators are questionable. Critical – Vital signs are unstable and not within normal limits.

As medical technology advances, more people survive conditions that once would have been fatal. However, about half of these ICU survivors develop some form of cognitive, psychosocial and physical deficits in a condition known as post-intensive care syndrome, or PICS.

Serious but stable – a patient who is still likely to be in the intensive care unit or acute ward. Their vital signs are stable and within normal limits. • Seriously ill – The patient may be unstable and their vital signs not within normal limits. The patient is likely to be in the intensive care unit or acute ward.

Patients recovering from critical illness have historically been transferred from the ICU to a hospital ward before being discharged home. These transitions allow patients to progressively receive lower-intensity care, physical and functional assessments, and rehabilitation before returning to the community.

If the patient needs to receive care you will be asked to wait. Mobile phones can be used in the visitors’ rooms but please ensure they are on silent mode before visiting the patient on the unit.

Sometimes complete recovery can take up to two years, particularly if people were admitted to ICU because of an emergency illness, surgical complication or accident. Here people talk about their physical recovery at home after leaving hospital.

In hospitals, Step Down Units (SDUs) provide an intermediate level of care between the Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and the general medical-surgical wards. On the other hand, an SDU can take capacity away from the already over-congested ICU.

The mean ICU length of stay was 3.4 (±4.5) days for intensive care patients who survived to hospital discharge, with a median of 2 day (IQR 1–4) (Table 1). A third of patients (35.9%) spent only 1 day in the ICU and 88.9% of patients were in the ICU for 1–6 days, representing 58.6% of the ICU bed-days in the cohort.

Nursing and other medical staff usually talk to sedated people and tell them what is happening as they may be able to hear even if they can’t respond. Some people had only vague memories whilst under sedation.

They do hear you, so speak clearly and lovingly to your loved one. Patients from Critical Care Units frequently report clearly remembering hearing loved one’s talking to them during their hospitalization in the Critical Care Unit while on “life support” or ventilators.

People in a coma are completely unresponsive. They do not move, do not react to light or sound and cannot feel pain. Their eyes are closed. The brain responds to extreme trauma by effectively ‘shutting down’.

During an overdose, the body experiences CNS depression, which can result in decreased rate of breathing, decreased heart rate, and loss of consciousness, possibly leading to coma or death.