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the person speaking and not their employer.

I'm Emily Silverman, and this is The Nocturnous Conversations.

For years, staff in the ICU believed that we needed sedation to keep ventilated patients calm.

The idea was that the sedation was protecting patients from the discomfort,

from the trauma of being critically ill. Just a push of propofal, a dose of benzos, and the patient would drift off into what looked like a peaceful sleep. But they weren't sleeping, not even close. What we didn't realize was that these patients in the

ICU were still aware. Their minds, suppressed by medication, were spiraling into terrifying

hallucinations. Their breathing tube became an instrument of torture. A routine catheter change felt

like sexual assault. Some saw strange

figures hovering in the air. People, animals, bizarre visions. Others thought they were in an airport,

a spaceship, somewhere, anywhere but the ICU. And it wasn't just the nightmares. Prolonged

sedation damaged the brain.

Patients woke up weeks later, not just physically weak, but mentally changed, living with symptoms of dementia, PTSD, and a kind of deep existential loss.

Many couldn't return to work.

Some lost their sense of purpose.

We saved their lives in the ICU, but at what cost?

Today's guests, Kaylee Dayton and Heidi Engle, are leading a movement to change all this.

They're fighting to restore consciousness, dignity, and mobility to ICU patients, so that they

don't just survive survive but actually recover.

Heidi is a physical therapist with nearly four decades of experience and has spent much of her

...