We need to talk about the value of ICU rehab,
It is as important as
drugs made in labs,
The battle we face
after intubation,
The effort it takes,
the shot heard across nations.
The A2F bundle formed
to reduce the harm we cause,
But in a lot of ICU, the damage does even give pause,
Rehab in my home
differs so much from the others,
We should all band
together as sisters and brothers.
So heed this my call
to join our movement,
Which is focused so
fully on getting us moving,
Because never forget
that not lost does not need to be regained,
That patient will not
have to know the pain of muscle growing again.
So join us in voice,
in spirit and in body,
Let’s do this
properly for we can’t afford to be shoddy,
These people's lives
we affect will impact so profoundly,
As for every person
in a bed has people 100 deep,
The family and
friends who witness the struggle,
Can be saved from the
horror of seeing them suffer.
We all seek the
solution which has eluded us all,
But we are not here
to drop the ball,
We work hard each day
to improve the world in tiny ways,
Because in weeks,
months or even years,
Those tiny actions
will reap us some gold.
Whether you stand at
the bed, research or other,
The work that you do
will be seen by fathers and mothers,
Your actions will be
burned in that patient's brain,
Let’s not leave them
with only a legacy of pain,
Working together we
make rehab the focus,
We motivate, drive
and support the goals that are chosen.
For in the end, we are
all just supporting roles in the life of the patient,
We are stagehands,
extras and even directors,
Managing the
situations and bringing the important to focus,
We show the best that
we have to evoke emotion,
Because of these plans, we are setting in motion,
They will impact people
all across the oceans.
So I leave it here
with these most feeble of words,
The patient in the
bed wants to be heard,
We want to be seen
and treated as a person,
We want to live life
not simply surviving the crisis,
For when you look at
the whole you will see too much more,
Learn about the
person they were and who they’ll become.
Thank you for reading
this I hope it evoked some emotion and I hope we can make ICU rehab a part of
every icu patients journeys. But also make the time in ICU less traumatic and
thus need less ICU rehab after.
