Getting Back on Track: Meanings of Recovery After Critical Illness Caused by COVID-19

Being critically ill in need of intensive care, lead to a challenging way back after survival, so also for survivors of COVID-19. The process to recovery can be long.

The aim of our qualitative study was to elucidate meanings of recovery for people who were once critically ill with COVID-19.

We conducted qualitative individual interviews with 13 individuals who had been critically ill with COVID-19, following a narrative approach. The data collected from the interviews, were analyzed according to phenomenological hermeneutic interpretation.

The participants, although feeling alone in the process of recovery, had willpower to return to normal life but struggled to keep pace with others. They strived for balance in everyday life and to regain strength despite being exhausted after having COVID-19. The participants were grateful for their survival but displayed a need to understand what had happened. They longed for social contact, expressed feelings of abandonment, and wished for follow-up dialogues with healthcare professionals to better understand their situation. However, because support from healthcare was insufficient, the participants ultimately needed to develop their own strategies to cope with their questions, fears, and weakness.

Meanings of recovery for people once critically ill with COVID-19, is to strive for balance in everyday life. In their recovery process, healthcare professionals should seek to understand what the illness means for the ill person, and in mutual understanding support them based on their needs.