Hola a tod@s, my dear friends.

Last Sunday OKdiario published a new interview (only available in Spanish) with Cristina Cifuentes, President of Community of Madrid.


To those who haven´t seen it yet, do not miss it (especially if you work with critically ill patients).

Last September 2015, we were talking about her famous phrase, and we wrote the post “ICU: a branch of hell?”, after an article published in Intensive Care Medicine which proposed to collect some basics to achieve an ICU more friendly.

With moving a calmness and courage, Cristina approaches her motorbike accident and recalls her experiences as a patient at the ICU of the Hospital Universitario de La Paz. Experiences lived day by day all anonymous patients admitted in the ICU, who do not choose it.

First of all, I would like to thank you, Cristina. Your testimony not only helps you, but puts voice to millions of people and makes them visible.

The IC-HU Project have received many opinions, and we would to continue talking about this issue. This are some of them:

“Listen to or read her testimony, I think it has special relevance to us as IC-HU because it represents that other “less friendly” face of the Intensive Care Units that we all know”.

“Uuuffffff. Really hard, very hard, I am very ploffff… a branch of hell?. And we believe (as workers) we are doing our best… This makes me think! “.


“Her experience only tells us that it is a long way to walk (and we are walking, aren´t we?)”.

“After listen to Cristina, I can think of many names and surnames that fit perfectly with the doctor of “the branch of hell” who think that all of this issue of humanization is only an entertainment in which many people “spend” their time.

“We don´t realize that ” the box 2″ has seen how “the box 4″ has just die. And He is alone and sick”.

“It would be a real challenge to contact to Cristina Cifuentes to show that another face of a friendly ICU in which we are engaged and working for.”

“It is good to have different views and experiences that perhaps we don´t like to listen, but here there are and fully justify our work for rehumanizing intensive care”.



Personally, there is a quote from Cristina I want to rescue: “In the ICU patients are an object, a piece of meat… The patient is depersonalized. If it were not so, it would be very difficult for the people who work there to save lifes”.

Sincerely believe that people can receive the better care, the better treatment, and friendly as possible, and that depends on our attitude.

There are things we can’t change, because this is about life and death themselves. Let´s focus on what we can improve.

Let´s continue to walking towards the #UCIamable (Kind ICU)

Happy Tuesday,
Gabi