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

So, most of the tips that I’m giving here are simply real-world stuff. It’s when we talk to clients and its emails that we get from clients, it’s when I talk to clients directly, and it’s also when people opt into our free instant impact report or into their free video mini-series to help them make informed decisions, get peace of mind control, power and influence.

We ask them, what is their biggest frustration? Here was a reader who says their biggest frustration was, “The consistent negative talk from the ICU team.”  And this is something that we are almost hearing daily here at Intensive Care Hotline, where families in intensive care simply complain about the negativity of the ICU team.

They’re coming to us and asking, “What does it all mean?” Now, what it all means is that intensive care teams are trying to manage their downside and the risk. What does that mean? The downside for them is you could potentially sue them if they were positive and overly optimistic. So, what that means is if they were positive and overly optimistic, and then your loved one is not getting better, you could potentially hold them to account, and you could potentially sue them for misleading you. So therefore, you have to read between the lines.

So, what that means is if you are looking at the research that’s out there that suggests that 90% of intensive care patients approximately survive. So, why would then intensive care teams be overly negative and overly pessimistic? Well, exactly for that reason. They want to stay in control of the narrative, and it’s so much easier for them to, for example, withdraw treatment if they created a negative narrative right from the start. Intensive care teams can be very quick in withdrawing treatment.

Again, these are questions we’re getting every day. I’m not making this up. Talking to people every day that ring us up and say, “Hey, tomorrow at three o’clock, the ICU team wants to withdraw life support and kill my family member without my consent.” And that is illegal, but we’re seeing this all the time. I’ve seen it while it’s working in ICU myself, how ICUs operate.

So, how should you deal with that negativity so that it doesn’t hold you, hostage, really, and that it doesn’t negatively impact your outlook on the situation, and that you can make informed decisions, get peace of mind, control, power, and influence. So, here is one suggestion, get a second opinion, and we can give you that second opinion here at intensivecarehotline.com. We can talk to doctors and nurses directly. We can look at medical records.  We can do a combination of both.

Now, case in point, I will link to a podcast here that I’ve done with a client a few weeks ago who had their 57-year-old father in intensive care after a traumatic brain injury. The gentleman fell off a roof or a scaffold during work, head forward, massive head stroke, cardiac arrest. The signs were very negative indeed. And the ICU, again, wanted to prematurely withdraw treatment saying that this gentleman won’t survive.

The family reached out to us, and we successfully intervened, suggested treatment options, which included a tracheostomy at the time. With a tracheostomy, for lack of a better term, we bought this gentleman more time, and lo and behold, he survived and he recovered in spite of the intensive care team saying, “Well, he won’t survive. If he does survive against all odds, he won’t have any quality of life”. Well, please have a look at the podcast that I’m linking to here because the gentleman actually is on the podcast and can share his own story of how grateful he is that we did intervene, and that he’s still here today, and how grateful his family is.

So, it’s critically important for you if you have a loved one in intensive care, that you do your own research, and that you do get a second opinion irrespective of the negativity of intensive care teams. Again, the negativity is often created to create a negative narrative so they can stay, or they think they can stay in control of the situation, and it’s easier for them to “sell you” an end-of-life situation instead of trying everything that’s within their power and save your loved one’s life.

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 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 we’ll answer all questions intensive care related.

If you need a medical record review, please contact us as well. We review medical records in real time and also after your loved one has been in intensive care. But we highly recommend we review medical records in real time so that you have a second opinion in real time. But we also review medical records after intensive care if you have unanswered questions, if you need closure, or if you simply want to see whether there has been any medical negligence.

Now, like the video, subscribe to my YouTube channel, click the notification bell, share the video with your friends and families, and comment below your questions and insights of what you want me to talk about next.

Thank you so much for watching.

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

Take care.