Nurses' diaries help intensive care patients at Midland Metropolitan fill the gaps in their memory

When patients wake up after days or weeks in intensive care, there is often a gap in their memory that can be frightening and hard to come to terms with. At Midland Metropolitan University Hospital, nurses are helping to fill that gap with something simple: a diary.

Staff at the hospital, run by Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust, keep patient diaries while people are sedated in the intensive care unit (ICU), recording everything from updates on their condition to visits from family and the small everyday moments that would otherwise be forgotten. The initiative was highlighted by the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce on 10 November.

"It's filled in the gaps"

Amritpal Virdee was rushed to the hospital after a heart attack in December 2025. After a procedure to fit a stent, his condition got worse, his heart stopped for several minutes, and he was admitted to intensive care, where specialist teams cared for him as he fought to recover.

While he was sedated, nurses quietly recorded his journey in a diary. Among the entries was a touching account of a visit from his brother, when a nurse switched on the television so they could watch the news and Match of the Day, only for the team to discover, to their amusement, that he was a Newcastle United supporter.

"After reading the diary it's filled in the gaps of what was missing in my memory," Mr Virdee said. Now recovering well after a two-month stay, he has been able to look back through it and understand the journey he has been on and the people who helped him.

"I just want to say a big thank you to the staff and the doctors for their dedication at the hospital. I will forever be indebted to them," he said.

Capturing the human moments

The diaries are part of the emotional and psychological support offered to patients and families by the hospital's critical care follow-up team. They also give families a record of their loved one's time in intensive care.

Catherine Beddowes, Senior Sister for critical care follow-up support, said: "When patients spend time in intensive care, they can lose days or even weeks of their lives. They might wake up with very little understanding of what has happened to them, which can be incredibly difficult to come to terms with."

"Keeping a diary is a simple but meaningful way of helping them make sense of that experience. It allows us to capture not just the medical milestones, but the human moments too, the visits from family, the conversations and the little things that make someone feel cared for."

"These might seem like ordinary details at the time, but for someone like Amritpal, they can mean the world," she said.

Recovery is more than physical

Patients who survive critical illness can face a long road back, and confusion about what happened while they were sedated can add to the strain. Initiatives like this recognise that recovery is about more than physical healing.

Midland Metropolitan University Hospital in Smethwick opened in 2024 and serves people across west Birmingham and Sandwell. For Mr Virdee, a collection of notes written at his bedside has become a lasting reminder of the compassion he received during one of the hardest times of his life.