ICU & Critical Care

Critical care is medical care for people who have life-threatening injuries and illnesses. It usually takes place in an intensive care unit (ICU). A team of specially-trained health care providers gives you 24-hour care. This includes using machines to constantly monitor your vital signs. It also usually involves giving you specialized treatments.

What happens in a critical care unit?

In a critical care unit, health care providers use lots of different equipment, including:

  • Catheters, flexible tubes used to get fluids into the body or to drain fluids from the body
  • Dialysis machines ("artificial kidneys") for people with kidney failure
  • Feeding tubes, which give you nutritional support
  • Intravenous (IV) tubes to give you fluids and medicines
  • Machines which check your vital signs and display them on monitors
  • Oxygen therapy to give you extra oxygen to breathe in
  • Tracheostomy tubes, which are breathing tubes. The tube is placed in a surgically made hole that goes through the front of the neck and into the windpipe.
  • Ventilators (breathing machines), which move air in and out of your lungs. This is for people who have respiratory failure.