How old should you be to visit someone in the intensive care unit of a hospital?

My grandmother passed away on friday and she was in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Pittsburgh. My older sister just had a baby and they advised her and her husband not to come into the room because they have a newborn baby. My sister now regrets not going in to see my grandmother because she died. I'm not understanding why they wouldn't allow them in. Its not like those doctors aren't parents and have kids of their own. I wanted to find out some answers to help my sister feel better about the situation. Thank you.

Sorry to hear that! I work in the ICU as an RN...I don't know what ur grandmother had, so it's difficult to say why...but we don't let anyone in under 6 yrs old. They can be carring bug from school ect....we are protecting the patient. We also don't want infants to be exposed to what any patients on the unit may have...Little kids really don't have a strong immune system and that goes for critically ill patient on the unit as well. I encourage everyone over the age of six to visit...they may have to wear a mask over their nose and mouth so you don't spread germs...if we nurses feel ill, we wear a mask to keep the patients safe, also some patients are in isolation and if your grandmother was..it was probably (if the case) not to bring anything back to the baby and vise versa. Pneumonia is a very dangerous illness, I wear a mask when dealing with these patient, you never know when someone is going to cough in your face and share their germs...Have your family member talk to someone at your church or to a counselor....I hope I helped, at least alittle...

I'm with TKDkid....your sister should have be encouraged to visit even if she wore a mask. I think the advice not to visit was to protect the baby. Wearing a mask, maybe a cover gown and good handwashing would have been good enough protection if communicable disease (like resp infection) was involved. Most of us who work in the hospital....and I cover every area, every night I work...go home to families. We do what we can to protect ourselves and our families...good handwashing, the first line of defense!