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Does Critical Condition in Intensive Care Mean Death? Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care!

It’s Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com with another quick tip for families in intensive care.

Today, I want to answer a question we get quite frequently and it’s a short question, but I think it’s a question that keeps people awake at night quite literally. So, the question today is, “Does critical condition mean death?” Well, that’s a great question, and the statistics are out there that approximately 90% of patients in intensive care survive. So that means the odds are in your critically ill loved one’s favor.

Now, I do believe this is a question that comes up very frequently simply because ICUs are very doomy and gloomy and they are very negative right from the start saying, “Oh, it’s very unlikely that your loved one will survive. If they do survive, they won’t have any quality of life.” So, they’re very quick at painting a doom and gloom picture.

So, what does that mean for you is you need to arm yourself with the right statistics. You need to arm yourself with the right advocacy and consulting. You need to do your research from Day 1 when you have a loved one in intensive care. That’s what you need to do.

The biggest challenge for families in intensive care is that they don’t know what they don’t know. They don’t know what to look for. They don’t know what questions to ask. They don’t know their rights and they don’t know how to manage doctors and nurses in intensive care. And that’s exactly what 99% of families in intensive care actually experience. They don’t know what to look for. They don’t know what questions to ask but we have created a very safe space for you to ask questions. If you ask that question to an intensive care team, they will probably focus on the negatives because it helps them to create their agenda, follow their agenda and create their narratives. What do I mean by that?

By them being negative and painting a doom and gloom picture, it means that… let’s reverse that for a moment. If they told you, hey, we’re going to look after your mom or your dad for the next three weeks and then they’ll be fine and they recover and then they go home and it doesn’t happen, you could sue them.

But them telling you that critical condition means death, they stay in control of the narrative because they’ve lowered your expectations. They’ve fearmongered you and then it’s also easy for them to guilt trip you if you want more treatment, if you want all treatment options to be available for your loved one. And then they’re telling you, “Oh, your loved one is dying anyway” and you shouldn’t be asking for more. You’re just helping your loved one’s suffering and you shouldn’t make them suffer.

So, it’s really important that you arm yourself with all the relevant information so that you can create your own narrative. Don’t be bogged down by the intensive care teams’ narrative, which is just be negative. It’s focused on their agenda, which is emptying intensive care beds as quickly as possible, so they have more room for new patients to come in, to maximize often their revenue and not focus so much on what patients and families want.

So, I hope that helps and I hope that gives you context about what’s happening in intensive care. And that you need help when you have a loved one in intensive care. Otherwise, you’ll be like any other family who comes to us a year later and says, “Oh, my loved one passed away last year and I think they killed him, but I didn’t know any better at the time.”

And then they come to us with second thoughts and then they want a medical record review. It’s much easier for you to get help while your loved one is in intensive care. And we can help you turn the situation around like we’ve done for hundreds of clients by now who have loved ones in intensive care.

So, 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 for families in intensive care at intensivecaresupport.org. There, you have access to me and my team 24 hours in a membership area and via email and we answer all questions intensive care related.

Also, I offer 1:1 consulting and advocacy for families in intensive care. I talk to doctors and nurses directly with you, ask all the questions you haven’t even considered asking, but you must ask those questions because otherwise you’ll be fighting an uphill battle and the intensive care team can tell you things like, that critical condition means death which is not accurate.

I also represent you in family meetings with intensive care teams making sure you’re well represented, and they don’t get the upper hand so that you have someone in these meetings who speaks the intensive care language. Because if you don’t speak the intensive care language, you’ll have no chance of getting the best care and treatment for your critically ill loved one.

We also offer medical record reviews in real time for a second opinion. Contact us for that as well. We also offer medical record reviews after intensive care if you have unanswered questions, if you are suspecting medical negligence or if you’re simply needing closure.

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

Thanks for watching.

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

Take care for now.

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