"Fiona Stanley Hospital ICU"

My story is one of gratitude. I wouldn’t have a clue what the staff working in the ICU, get paid but whatever it is, it’s not enough.

The dedication, attitude and professionalism they bring every day in testing conditions is amazing. My elderly grandfather was admitted to hospital with a badly blocked bowel and due to the blockage had fluids around his heart and lungs and was suffering pneumonia and not to mention poor kidneys. He was told surgery was extremely risky and there was a chance he may not survive the surgery. The alternative however, was a certain death within 3 days to which the surgeon said we’ll make you comfortable. 

Well despite understanding all the risks and painstaking after care my Pop decided he had nothing to lose and wasn’t ready to die. 

And today 3 days after having successful surgery on his bowel he’s being taken out of ICU and is now in a ward on level 7A. All his vitals are sound and he’s doing fantastically well and is very much alive. I don’t believe he would be alive today if not for the round the clock care given in the ICU to manage his blood pressure which was critically low on a number of occasions. 

Given the age of my grandfather we know things can change really quickly and he’s far from out of danger and has many hurdles to go, but there is hope now when a couple of days ago we had very little and for that we are thankful to the angels in ICU. 

I have to say the surgeon wasn’t the most positive person we met and it was clear to everyone he was pushing the family into convincing Pop to not have the surgery. We all knew the risks and the worst case scenarios, but ultimately as a family we wanted to support our father/grandfather in what he wanted to do.