Ronan’s lingering symptoms aren’t unique to COVID-19 patients. In as many as 80% of them leaving the ICU, researchers have documented what they call post-intensive care syndrome (PICS) -- a group of physical, mental, and psychiatric symptoms that result from an ICU stay. Although their illness plays a role in these symptoms, the amount of time spent in critical care is a major factor.

The number of Americans hospitalized with the virus is increasing again, reaching 41,000 late last week, many with a circle of loved ones holding vigil in their minds, even if they can’t sit at the bedside. A decade ago, critical care clinicians coined the term post-intensive care syndrome, or PICS. It describes the muscle weakness, cognitive changes, anxiety and other physical and mental symptoms that some ICU patients cope with after leaving the hospital. Those complications are fallout from the medications, immobility and other possible components of being critically ill. Now they worry that some family members of critically ill COVID patients may develop a related syndrome, PICS-Family.

Improvements in quality of care have resulted in a growing population of patients who survive critical illness each year. However, these intensive care unit (ICU) survivors frequently report a wide range of complications that may persist for months to years after their hospital discharge, calling attention to a need for extended support.

For most people—about 80%, according to the World Health Organization—COVID-19 won't result in serious illness. But that still means 1 in 5 people who contract the infection will end up with a more severe form of the disease, and will need hospitalization. In the most severe cases—typically in those with underlying conditions like high blood pressure, heart and lung problems, or diabetes—COVID-19 patients may be admitted to a hospital's intensive care unit (ICU), where they can benefit from respiratory support through a ventilator. According to multiple studies, the majority of patients admitted to the ICU and require ventilation do not survive. Data from the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Center in London shows that, of outcome data available for 690 ICU patients, 346 (or 50.1%) patients died, while 344 (49.9%) were discharged alive. Similar findings were shown in an Italian study published in JAMA: Of 1,581 patients with available ICU disposition data at the end of the study, 920 patients were still in the ICU—but of the remaining 661 patients, 405 (61.3%) died while 256 (38.7%) were discharged. Of course, being discharged from the ICU is the best-case scenario—but sometimes, even after coming off of respiratory support, hospitalized patients can experience another issue: ICU delirium.