Critical Care

Why do I need Critical illness Cover?Critical illness offers a one-off payment if someone is diagnosed with a serious illness, while income protection offers a monthly pay out if the policyholder is unable to return to work.With advances in medical care more and more people now survive illnesses once thought to be fatal.Many people will go on to lead a relatively normal life, but they may not enjoy the same mobility or good health that they did.Often big changes have to be made and this can affect their ability to earn the salary they did before.Critical Illness Cover provides you with a lump sum or a monthly income, making it easier to cope financially when you need to concentrate on getting well.Diagnosis of such an illness would be a major trauma in your life, however you would still have to meet your financial commitments. Remember, your life cover won’t pay out unless you actually die.Critical illness cover is offered as a basic or comprehensive policy. The basic plan will cover the main conditions and a comprehensive plan will cover many more which may include loss of sight, permanent disability, loss of hearing and so on.Most critical illness policies will cover the most common serious illnesses: Heart Attack, Cancer, Stroke, Kidney Failure, Major Organ Transplant, Coronary Artery By-Pass and Permanent Total Disability.Other illnesses that most policies will also cover include:AIDS and HIVAlzheimer’s DiseaseBenign Brain TumourComaCreutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD)Loss of a limb, sight, speech, hearingMultiple SclerosisParalysisParkinson’s DiseaseMotor Neurone DiseaseFree Cover for ChildrenYou will need to check the small print of any policy you take out. Other diseases covered by some insures include, Creutzfeld-Jacob-Disease, HIV resulting from a physical assault, HIV from blood transfusion and pre-senile dementia.You should read the key features document from the insurance company and their guide to critical illness to find out exactly which diseases are coveredIf you contract one of the specified critical illnesses covered by the plan you will need to survive for a period of time before a claim can be made. This is normally for 28-30 days depending on the insurance company. Most plans provide cover for children, normally up to 18 years, subject to certain restrictions.Once the claim has been approved the plan will normally pay out a tax free lump sum but some plans can pay an income or have the option to pay an income. Most plans will not normally pay out if the reason for the claim is as a result of a criminal act, drug abuse, pregnancy, self inflicted injury or war and civil commotion.The insurance company will consider a number of factors when deciding to accept the cover applied for. These will usually include:Your ageYour genderAmount of cover requiredOccupationSmoker or non smoker Your pastimesYou and your family medical historyAlways look carefully at the Key Features Documents and the specific cover on these types of policies.

Hyperglycemia in children differs as to its endocrinologic origin depending on the progression of the condition. This is what the researchers said in the journal called Critical Care. They said that the dysfunction of the primary beta cells and the peripheral insulin resistance can lead to CIH in children.What is CIH? It is acronym for Critical Illness Hyperglycemia. Mark Rigby and Catherine Preissig of Atlanta’s Emory University School of Medicine studied 41 children who were receiving intensive care treatment. These researchers described how both peripheral insulin resistance and primary beta-cell dysfunction can cause CIH in children. Here are the other things they found:It was interesting to note that the children in the intensive care unit are not likely to develop critical illness hyperglycemia if they do not have either the cardiovascular or respiratory failure. Those with respiratory failure alone may or may not develop CIH. Those with both RF and cardiovascular failure develop CIH.The conclusion they came out of these data was that for the children with respiratory failure only, the cause of CIH is the high insulin resistance whereas for the children who have both the respiratory and cardiovascular failure, the cause is the dysfunction of the beta cells.As mentioned above, for the CIH in children who had both cardiovascular and respiratory problem the cause was the dysfunction of the beta cells. Those with respiratory failure only, the CIH was caused by elevated insulin resistance. Understanding this concept may impact the course of the condition and the treatment approach. How? Let me explain.In terms of cause and reasons, there are differences between patients with both respiratory failure and cardiovascular failure and patients who have respiratory failure alone. These differences will show that tailoring the treatment strategies to each group will lead to better result.It is clear that developing individualized strategy will help these patients who are suffering critical illness hyperglycemia. Developing glycemic goals in children with life-threatening illness, for instance, have to be tailored to the needs of the individuals concerned.What is known about beta cells dysfunction? Research has shown there are five stages to this. The first stage is when the secretion of insulin increases to compensate with the resistance to insulin and the decrease in the mass of the B-cell. The glucose levels begin to rise in step 2 while step 3 is characterized by a period of instability with the glucose level rising rapidly.Stage 4 is when decompensation is more stable with the B-cell differentiation more severe. The final stage 5 is characterized by more severe decompensation with the B-cell greatly reduced and progression to ketosis is on.There is a need for more studies to determine if treatment with insulin for both groups is effective since in addition to the differences mentioned above, those with both respiratory and cardiovascular failure had more severe CIH than those with either the respiratory or cardiovascular alone was present.Knowing that this condition is the result of the dysfunction of the beta cells in children who are critically ill with cardiovascular and respiratory failure will lead to appropriate therapeutic measures. The treatment option may be different if the cause is respiratory failure. Then the approach will not be the same for this hyperglycemia.