“I don’t know what I was expecting and I don’t remember much about the first week, but I wish I had spent all six of the weeks I was in hospital, in the [Intensive Care Unit],” said 56-year old Lisa Tucker.Ms Tucker was in the ICU of King Edward VII Memorial Hospital this March after she developed a complication from surgery she’d had a few weeks before.A section of her large intestine was removed after polyps formed on the lining. The internal cut, which had been stapled together, did not heal properly.Ms Tucker woke one morning telling her family she felt very unwell.“They called the ambulance,” she said.In the Emergency Ward the cause was quickly diagnosed and Ms Tucker was taken into surgery. When she awoke she was in ICU.She said she doesn’t recall exactly how she felt when she came to, nor could she recall much else from the first week she was there she was given morphine to ease the pain from surgery.“I was never scared or afraid. I don’t remember ever being afraid of being there,” she told Body & Soul.Ms Tucker spent three weeks in ICU closely monitored by nurses and a team of doctors.She said they kept her apprised of her condition even during the first week when she wasn’t fully coherent.“I remember a lot of doctors talking to me that first week although I don’t remember at all clearly what they were saying,” she said.In the following two weeks, after she was taken off morphine, she came to understand the high level of care she was being afforded.“I was terribly afraid of the seriousness of my condition,” she said. “It was a life and death matter.”But she said the ICU nurses reassured her.“They were highly experienced, splendid and prayerful,” she said. “They were there with me at all times. I needed for nothing because when I called they were right there.”And Ms Tucker said she called for everything from a glass of water to help with her personal hygiene.“Even cleaning me up and bathing me,” she said. “Having someone else bathe you, someone you don’t even know, is something you would shy away from, but they were very professional and friendly. It was the nurses themselves who put me at ease about having them bathe me.”She said she would reassure anyone who fears being admitted to ICU.“My advice would be that it’s the best place you can be,” she said. “You’ll get excellent care from prayerful nurses who totally care about your situation, and doctors are there around the clock.”Ms Tucker has been recuperating at home since her release from KEMH and just last week saw her final home visit from a nursing team who attended to her wound and bandages every day.“I look at it [my ICU experience] and say I am blessed that I am alive,” she said. “There are many people that do not live through something of this magnitude. I thank God that he saved me for whatever purpose.”