title: A parents' perspective: our needs and our message.
abstract: This article, written by parents, describes their fears and frustrations as the child they love is taken from the joyful family life that had been expected, to the terror of facing the possibility of death in a critical care situation. The parents want to help the medical team in healing their child, yet find themselves in a totally foreign environment in which they are often ineffective. By sharing the feelings experienced during their child's initial diagnosis and treatment, the authors hope that health care professionals will understand better the emotions parents are feeling and that parents can be helped to overcome their fears in order to better assume their role as part of the critical care treatment process.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schrey
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schrey
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003422:Critical Care; D006330:Heart Defects, Congenital / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000451:nursing* / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology*