[ANON POST] Escaping from an Intensive Care Unit
Looking for some advice to help my characters make medically irresponsible life choices. USA, 2006.
Research: Googled variations of "ICU equipment," "throat slashed recovery," and, cringing somewhat, how to remove a catheter. I visited to the Cascade Hospital website and went through the stab wounds tag in this comm. I have some experience of waking up in ICU hooked to various tubes myself, but I was heavily medicated so they're vague memories indeed.
The scenario: Character A has been stabbed in the back and had his throat slashed. A week or two after the attack, he's conscious, breathing on his own, albeit with oxygen tubes, and on a morphine pump. For reasons, Character B breaks into his hospital room and busts him out. B is not a medical professional of any description, though he's reasonably well-educated and has had to keep himself and others from not dying in the past. Swift escape is a higher priority than A's survival, but B is aiming for both.
So, while acknowledging that kidnapping someone in a fragile condition from a hospital is a terrible idea:
1. What kind of equipment would B have to be disconnecting? I assume A has an IV port in his arm and a heart monitor, as well as the aforementioned nasal cannula, but am I missing anything else? Is it difficult for a relative amateur to remove without, say, blood spewing everywhere?
2. From A's POV, how painful is this process? Everything I've read, and my own experience, is assuming planning and medical expertise, which is not the case here.
3. Once they're away, what should B be doing to keep A alive, minimize infection, etc.? He has access to basic first aid supplies where he's going, plus not really being adverse to stealing things on his way out of the hospital.
Thanks!
Research: Googled variations of "ICU equipment," "throat slashed recovery," and, cringing somewhat, how to remove a catheter. I visited to the Cascade Hospital website and went through the stab wounds tag in this comm. I have some experience of waking up in ICU hooked to various tubes myself, but I was heavily medicated so they're vague memories indeed.
The scenario: Character A has been stabbed in the back and had his throat slashed. A week or two after the attack, he's conscious, breathing on his own, albeit with oxygen tubes, and on a morphine pump. For reasons, Character B breaks into his hospital room and busts him out. B is not a medical professional of any description, though he's reasonably well-educated and has had to keep himself and others from not dying in the past. Swift escape is a higher priority than A's survival, but B is aiming for both.
So, while acknowledging that kidnapping someone in a fragile condition from a hospital is a terrible idea:
1. What kind of equipment would B have to be disconnecting? I assume A has an IV port in his arm and a heart monitor, as well as the aforementioned nasal cannula, but am I missing anything else? Is it difficult for a relative amateur to remove without, say, blood spewing everywhere?
2. From A's POV, how painful is this process? Everything I've read, and my own experience, is assuming planning and medical expertise, which is not the case here.
3. Once they're away, what should B be doing to keep A alive, minimize infection, etc.? He has access to basic first aid supplies where he's going, plus not really being adverse to stealing things on his way out of the hospital.
Thanks!