Abstract
Global Majority people in the UK continue to be disproportionately affected by critical illness with Covid-19. Pre-pandemic literature indicates that acute stress responses predict psychological morbidity in critical care survivors. This study explored the lived experience of critical illness with Covid-19 for eight Global Majority people in the UK. Verbatim transcripts of semi-structured interviews were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Analysis suggested that participants’ experience was characterised by a pervasive threatened mortality, feeling alone and needing to be self-reliant, collective concern in their recovery from diverse social groups and ongoing impairment and vulnerability resulting in changes to identity. Perceived stressfulness of participants’ illness trajectory was influenced by contextual factors relating to the pandemic and their personal and social histories. This highlights the significance of patient ethnicity in stress responses to critical illness with Covid-19.