Over 80 per cent of all Americans have been affected by critical illness (Leske, 1992). The
Society of Critical Care Medicine (2006) reported that nearly 80 per cent of Americans will
experience a critical illness or injury, either as a patient or as a family member or patient’s
friend. One-third to one-half of Americans spends time in an ICU during their final year
of life, and one-fifth die there. Beyond death rates, suffering is common among ICU patients.
Substantial dissatisfaction among relatives and friends of ICU patients indicates that suffering
is not limited to the patients (Garland, 2005). Critical illness is a threat to the person’s adaptive
system: not only the patient’s but the family’s as well.