Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital

History

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Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital is a public hospital located in Drogheda, County Louth, Ireland. It is managed by RCSI Hospitals.

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The hospital, which was commissioned on the initiative of Mother Mary Martin of the Medical Missionaries of Mary, was opened as Our Lady of Lourdes International Missionary Training Hospital in 1955

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The new hospital had 115 beds when it opened in 1957, with another wing still under contruction, that would provide another 100 beds. The Drogheda facility was one of the best-designed and best equipped in the country at the time.

 

Intensive care

Intensive care units (ICUs) are specialist hospital wards that provide treatment and monitoring for people who are critically ill.

They're staffed with specially trained healthcare professionals and contain sophisticated monitoring equipment.

ICUs are also sometimes called critical care units (CCUs), high dependency units (HUS's) or intensive therapy units (ITUs).

 

When intensive care is needed

Intensive care is needed if someone is seriously ill and requires intensive treatment and close monitoring, or if they're having surgery and intensive care can help them recover.

Most people in an ICU have problems with 1 or more organs. For example, they may be unable to breathe on their own.

There are many different conditions and situations that can mean someone needs intensive care.

Some common reasons include:

• a serious accident – such as a road accident, a severe head injury, a serious fall or severe burns

• a serious short-term condition – such as a heart attack or stroke

• a serious infection – such as sepsis or severe pneumonia

• major surgery – this can either be a planned part of your recovery, or an emergency measure if there are complications

 

What intensive care involves

Patients on an ICU will be looked after closely by a team of ICU staff and will be connected to equipment by a number of tubes, wires and cables.

There will normally be 1 nurse for every 1 or 2 patients.

This equipment is used to monitor their health and support their bodily functions until they recover.

Equipment that may be used on an ICU includes:

• a ventilator – a machine that helps with breathing; a tube is placed in the mouth or through a small cut in the throat (tracheostomy)

• monitoring equipment – used to measure important bodily functions, such as heart rate, blood pressure and the level of oxygen in the blood

• IV lines and pumps – tubes inserted into a vein (intravenously) to provide fluids, nutrition and medication

• feeding tubes – tubes placed in the nose, through a small cut made in the tummy or into a vein if a person is unable to eat normally

• drains and catheters – drains are tubes used to remove any build-up of blood or fluid from the body; catheters are thin tubes inserted into the bladder to drain pee

Someone in an ICU will often be on painkilling medicine and medicine that makes them drowsy (sedatives).

This is because some of the equipment used can be uncomfortable