Kirsten Anne Collins
7/3/1965 – 25/8/2019
Forever in our hearts
This website is dedicated to the memory of Kirsten who was my loving wife, daughter of Emmett & Norma, and brother of Bazz.
Between December 2016 and Feb 2019 Kirsten was admitted three separate times to Charlies ICU for different medical crises (one was Legionnaire's disease), with two relying on total life support.
It was the support of the Doctors, nurses and staff that helped her better understand what had happened to her in ICU and gave her the strength to cope once she was discharged.
Kirsten selflessly gave the ICU team detailed feedback on her experiences to help the team learn more about the impact ICU has on patients (especially those with mental health issues) and two medical research papers co-authored by Dr Kate Triplett, Dr Matt Anstey et al have been published in the British Medical Journal in 2017 and 2019.
Sadly, Kirsten died in August 2019 from pneumonia as her lungs had been so badly affected by the Legionnaires disease.
The family is funding this website so that other patients and families can gain a better understanding of ICU and how it affects everyone and hopefully make their time a little less traumatic.
We have nothing but the highest admiration and praise for the incredible work done by the ICU team in what are always extremely difficult circumstances.
We thank them all for the care and compassion they showed to Kirsten, me, and the family.
I hope you find the information provided on this website is of help to you.
Ongoing research to help improve medical treatment and patient care costs money so we do hope that you will support the team and make a donation to the Charlies Foundation for Research.
Tony Collins