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Communication and Critical Illness

Critical illness places many challenges on the ill and their loved ones. These challenges are even more pronounced when the critically-ill individual is a child. This article provides a very personal narrative account of a mother's use of communication to cope with the many stresses, constraints and symbolic challenges encountered in helping her daughter confront life- threatening cancer. The article powerfully illustrates how strategic communication enables parents to serve as effective advocates for their critically-ill children, negotiate the bureaucracy of the modem health system and establish supportive interpersonal relations with interdependent partners in the health-care enterprise.