About Us

This Center of Excellence in Family-Centered Critical Care was founded in late 2007 by Mark A. Lilly, father, writer, educator and communication consultant. It stemmed from the experiences he and his family shared in the summer of 2007, when Mark's eldest son Felix sustained severe injuries in a fall from a tree. Felix and his family spent 3 months in the hospital, including 2 weeks in the ICU and almost 2 months in in-patient rehab.

That experience provided the impetus for this work. The Lilly family became aware of the multitude of benefits they had enjoyed while traversing this crisis, and this project is an attempt to give back the critical care community. In Mark's words:

"Our experience with Felix and our family was so monumental for us. Looking back, it was clear that we had been blessed: we received excellent care in and out of the hospital, had amazing community support, and have been blessed with a remarkable recovery for our son.

"What we learned, however, is how lucky we were in so many ways --having had experience with the health-care system before, it was easier to communicate with doctors and nurses; having a strong community let us focus as much as possible on helping our son heal; having friends who were health care providers let us broaden our approach to healing.

"This project will bring together in one place many of the new knowledge we learned while helping working with the critical care teams to help our son heal."

The Center sets out to give other families the best chance possible for survival and recovery, and to give critical care providers the best chance to see the deepest rewards from their work.