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Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com with another quick tip for families in intensive care. So, currently we are working with a client who has their 87-year-old mother in intensive care. And this is now her second re-admission to intensive care after she’s been discharged to LTAC.

Now, we are always saying that when patients go to LTAC, there’s a huge risk of them bouncing back into ICU. And this has already happened once for this lady and now it might happen for the second time, and here is why.

The first time she went from ICU to LTAC. She was nowhere near ready. She had blood transfusions, she had Atrial Fibrillation (AFib), and she was at the verge of renal failure or kidney failure, which is what then exactly happened when she was in LTAC (long-term acute care). She went into kidney failure, had to be readmitted back to ICU for dialysis.

And now the ICU wants to send her to LTAC again. And this time she is on dialysis. So, her situation is even worse. She’s still in AFib. And LTAC, you’ve heard me say it over and over again, are the better version of a nursing home. They’re not designed for ICU patients. So, the madness seems to continue there. And the system is obviously under-resourced to deal with high influx of intensive care patients. That’s unfortunate. Just the reality and the system is failing ICU patients as far as we are concerned here at intensivecarehotline.com.

So anyway, I just wanted to put out this video that under no circumstances should you allow your loved one to go to LTAC because she is on a ventilator with a tracheostomy. She’s just waiting for a disaster and your loved one will probably bounce back into ICU in no time.

And in this particular situation, the lady bounced back into a different ICU from where she was discharged from. This is madness. She’s basically had three teams within just a few weeks and she’s at a very critical stage. ICU patients need a holistic approach with stable teams around them who can help patients on a consistent basis.

So that is my quick tip for today.

If you have a loved one in intensive care, go to intensivecarehotline.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website or simply send us an email to [email protected] with your questions.

Also, have a look at our membership site at our membership area for families in intensive care at intensivecaresupport.org. There you have access to me and my team 24-hours a day in a membership area and via email and you get all questions intensive care related, answered.

If you need a medical record review for your loved one in real time, please contact us as well. We can help you with a medical record review in real time or after intensive care, especially if you need closure, if you have unanswered questions or if you’re suspecting medical negligence, we can help you with all of that.

Thanks for watching. Please subscribe to my YouTube channel for regular updates for families in intensive care. Click the like button, click the notification bell, share the video with your friends and families and comment below what you want to see next, or what questions and insights you have.

Thanks for watching.

This is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com, and I’ll talk to you in a few days.

Take care for now.