Content area
Full Text
Patients may imagine that intensive care units (ICUs), where lifesaving high tech care is delivered to very sick people, are as quiet as a chapel. But they're not. The World Health Organization says that noise levels in the average ICU should be no higher than in a library, at 35 dB. In reality, ICUs are as loud as a main road or a busy restaurant: one UK study recorded noise peaks above 85 dB-equivalent to a road drill-as many as 16 times an hour in an ICU. 1
Several years ago I spent many weeks in one of those ICU beds. I wasn't your typical ICU patient, who tends to be older or to be admitted after a planned procedure or an accident. In my early 30s I developed pneumonia, then sepsis, and was critically ill for several weeks. Like many such patients, when I was woken up I didn't understand where I was. A combination of severe illness, sedation, and a tracheostomy left me unable to talk or move. I felt completely trapped and vulnerable. The loud noises and activity around me were confusing and threatening.
Constant and unpredictable
I could hear chatter and activity from the staff, crashing bin lids, and disturbing noises from other patients. But the constant and unpredictable alarms were the worst. The beeping of life support systems communicates to staff that all is well or that something is wrong and needs their urgent attention. As...