Susan East, ICU Survivor

Bossier City, LA 

Susan East is a three time ARDS survivor.  The first time she had ARDS was July, 2008 when she was 45.  The second time was July, 2014, at age 51.  Finally, last June, 2017, Susan had ARDS again at the age of 54.  She is a critical care survivor!  Susan has written a book that will be released soon.  She is a CASA volunteer, where she acts as a court appointed special advocate for foster children.  She is also on the Commission for Women of Bossier City and serves as Vice President.  Finally, she is President for Epsilon Sigma Alpha, where they raise money for St. June Children’s Research Hospital.   

 

Becky Felton, Family of ICU Survivor

Ord, Nebraska 

Becky Felton is mother of critical care survivor, Katie.  Her daughter was hospitalized in Nebraska with pneumonia, sepsis and ARDS in October, 2011.  Her daughter spent also a month in ICU.  61 year old Becky is a registered nurse with a background in ER, trauma, OB, med-surg, and orthopedics.  She is currently working as a school nurse, in order to be caregiver to her daughter.   

 

Lindsay Rose, Family of Lost Loved one in ICU 

Arlington, VA 

 

Lindsay’s mother, Linda, passed away on April 23, 2011 after a 6 week long excruciating battle with ARDS.  As a member of the Advisory Board, she looks forward to sharing the ICU experience from the point of view of a critical care patient’s family member.  Through this effort, Lindsay hopes to honor her mom in a way that would make her proud and also help others who are or will be in the same position experienced by her family. 

 

Lindsay is 36 years old and works in commercial property management as an Assistant Property Manager for 2 office buildings in Arlington.  She grew up in Northern Virginia and went to college at JMU, majoring in Marketing.  Family means everything to her and health and fitness are a major aspect of her life.  

 

Rebecca Vonharringa, RN Critical Care Nurse

Manhasset, NY 

Rebecca is a nurse in the Medical ICU at North Shore Hospital in Manasset, NY.  She has worked there for six years and has a total of 10 years experience as a nurse.  After being introduced to the idea of humanizing ICU care over the past few months, Rebecca said that it struck her because it is something she has been interested in but she sees it is lacking in healthcare.  Rebecca is eager to combine her experience as an ICU nurse with her passion to ensure compassionate patient centered care.  For more information: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-von-harringa-30b3a0b6 

 

Samuel M. Brown, MD 

Salt Lake City, UT

Samuel M. Brown, MD is Associate Professor of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and Medical Ethics and Humanities at University of Utah School of Medicine and director of the Center for Humanizing Critical Care at Intermountain Medical Center. He is an active intensive care physician, treating patients in the Shock Trauma Intensive Care Unit at Intermountain. His traditional biomedical research focuses on the heart’s response to life-threatening infection, but he also works extensively to understand and transform the human experience of life-threatening illness for patients and families. His group have advanced understanding of long-term recovery from critical illness, the role of visiting hours and family presence during ICU procedures, the relevance of personality types to medical decision making in the ICU, and the physiology of stress for ICU family members. He is also an award-winning historian of religion and culture: his most recent book, Through the Valley of Shadows (Oxford, 2016), lays out a humanizing reform agenda for critical care. For more information: https://samuelbrown.net 

 

Gabriel Heras La Calle, MD 

Madrid, Spain

Dr. Gabriel Heras La Calle has been doing tremendous work on humanizing medicine in the ICU in Spain and his work is spreading to Europe and Central & South America.

 

Proyecto HU-CI: Humanising Intensive Care, an international organisation created in February 2014, already has more than 20,000 ICU professionals convinced that health care must be focused on the dignity of all its actors: patients, families and professionals. Their work has changed the health care model to care for all people: patients, users, families and health care professionals.  This has been accomplished through research, training and accreditation.  In 2017, they trained more than 10,000 health professionals and continue their outreach and awareness around the world, replicating their project in countries such as Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Brazil and Portugal. For more information: http://humanizandoloscuidadosintensivos.com/en/home/

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