Zach Lloyd was only 37 years old with no pre-existing health conditions, but COVID-19 was bringing him within an inch of his life.

Sedative medications used in intensive care are associated with increased delirium, which is in turn connected with higher medical costs and greater risk of death and ICU-related dementia.

The Critical Illness, Brain Dysfunction and Survivorship Center at Vanderbilt University Medical Center is following patients who have been hospitalized for COVID-19 over time to see if they develop long-term cognitive impairment, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

A month before his 49th birthday, Geoffrey Fleming, MD, had a biopsy of his liver to diagnose an unidentified metastatic disease that he already knew was “something bad.”

Multidisciplinary teams conducting daily rounds in intensive care units will typically work their way down hallways, going from one patient to the next based on spatial proximity.

“If his family had been there, they would have wanted to hold and touch his hand and rub his head, so that’s what I did"

“A bunch of us came from different ICU environments. We became a tight team, a great team, that came together very quickly.”