Patients on ventilators have things to say, and no way to say them

Only 4 in 10 caregivers say a doctor asked how the patient prefers to communicate. The patients who cannot answer often have the most to report. Chris Ross is a speech-language pathologist and school administrator. This episode is based on her article "Communication access is a patient safety issue," published on KevinMD. She spent 35 years giving nonverbal children a way to be understood, then woke from 12 days on ECMO with a tracheostomy and no way to say anything herself. You will hear what she tried when nobody on the unit knew sign language, what a respiratory therapist tore off a Kleenex box to give her, and why she still wonders whether a communication board would have eased her delirium. You will also hear about the chest tightness she could not report, what her hospital now hangs outside every room, and what she wants clinicians to ask a patient who communicates differently. Press play for what a patient on a ventilator is trying to tell you, and the free tool that lets them.

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