Today, a nurse studente asked me in the morning shift:

– “What is the humanization of Intensive Care?”.

I thought during a second and I have replied: “Look, how is it possible that we (as human beings), who in addition care another human beings (we are not descendants of Zeus or anything like that), we have now to stop, to think that we should humanize what we do every day!!!!” Why has happened this?.

I said to the student nurse: “Where did we get lost? Where did we leave our Northern?. Well, we lost North from the beginning: the Health Universities, for centuries have taught us about altered bodies, not human beings who have fallen ill of any Pathology: they taugh us to only see organs.

And social security laws have legislated on pathologies, also forgetting the human being carrying these bodies. And added to this picture so grey, the caregivers have believed the story that we are descendants of the gods: lies! We are same as all human beings.

As well: it´s time to unite all efforts into one single: we have to looking at the INVISIBLE: the human being has always been there: feeling, thinking, fearing with the five senses. In addition, we must look at the family and the person has a defined social role”.

For this reason, I thought: the EPS (Social Health System in Colombia) nor the IPS (clinics or public and private hospitals), neither the Ministry nor the pharmaceuticals laboratories will bring to Colombia the IC-HU project of Spain. So we decided to make a foundation to humanize the ICU. The first branch of the Spanish Project.


But we want that FHU-CI will have all the legal and accounting power to endure in time (Dr. Carlos Colmenares U., distinguised attorney); with national representation: the
AMCI (Colombian Intensive Care Association, Dr. Agamenón Quintero), to give it the seriousness of academic and scientific; and four engines who will fight against storm and wind: Ms. Sandra Caicedo and Patricia Castaño (ladies of the Cucuta Society), Catalina Ospina (Psychology student) and a Social worker, Dora Rozo.

Through the proposals emanating from the humanization Plan created in Madrid with its eight strategies, profesional, our patients, families and institutions could see the invisible in Colombia.

This Foundation and its statutes will ensure the policies of education, research, academic exchange, teaching and service to all the pillars that were previously invisible: Today, we can see them.

Thanks Gabi. Thank you Spain.

Note: everything has been for free. People who have heard this story have told us: “I do it because I believed in it!: in human beings.”


Dr. Arturo Arias
Head of ICU, Clínica Norte.
Cúcuta, Norte de Santander, Colombia