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If you want to know how to get your mom off the ventilator when she’s in an unresponsive state in ICU on a ventilator with the breathing tube, stay tuned. I’ve got news for you.

My name is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com and this is another quick tip for families in intensive care.

So, I have an email from Ashley who says, “Hi Patrik, I’m trying to get my mom off the ventilator in intensive care with a breathing tube while she’s in an unconscious state. She can breathe 4 hours on her own. They want to do surgery for a tracheostomy, Is this the right next step?”

Well, Ashley, I’m very sorry to hear about your mom’s situation.

Here’s what you need to consider in a situation like that and what I keep always saying here in my videos is that the biggest challenge for families in intensive care is simply 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 you are up against in this situation.

First of all, it would also be very interesting to know and very important to know why your mom is in ICU and on a ventilator. Because that would help me in answering your question. This is what I mean, the devil is absolutely in the detail when you have a loved one critically ill in intensive care. There are dozens and dozens of things happening simultaneously when someone is in intensive care, and it is like piecing together a complex puzzle to get to the answers that you’re looking for.

So, for example, why is your mom unresponsive? Has she had a brain injury? A traumatic brain injury? Has she had a stroke? Has she had seizures? Or is she simply not waking up because she has been in an induced coma for a prolonged period of time? Has she been chemically paralyzed with medications? Why is she not waking up? Because the answer heavily depends on that.

Also, is she still sedated to this day? Is that why she’s not waking up? You are also saying she can breathe 4 hours on her own, and they want to do surgery for tracheostomy. So, let me be very clear here. When you have a loved one critically ill in intensive care on a ventilator with a breathing tube, to begin with, the ultimate goal of the intensive care team needs to be to remove the breathing tube and wean your mom off the ventilator. That must be the ultimate goal. Don’t negotiate on that.

I have made a video, “How to wean a critically ill patient off the ventilator and the breathing tube?”, and I will put a link below this video so you can check out that video. That must be the ultimate goal.

Now, the next question that you should be asking here is, are they doing everything? And I mean everything beyond the shadow of a doubt to wean your mom off the ventilator and the breathing tube? That can only be answered by an expert like myself, who has seen hundreds, potentially thousands of patients in intensive care being weaned off a ventilator and the breathing tube successfully.

So, once you’ve answered that question with my help, of course, then we can look at, is breathing 4 hours on a spontaneous breathing trial enough to take that further? Maybe do 6 hours tomorrow, maybe do 8 hours the next day, and so forth. Is that enough to get your mom off the ventilator and the breathing tube and avoid the tracheostomy 

Now, with the tracheostomy, generally speaking, the timeline is around 10 to 14 days of a breathing tube and mechanical ventilation. If a patient can’t be weaned off the ventilator and the breathing tube, that’s when Intensive care team when you as a family should consider a tracheostomy as the next step, and that might be the right next step, but it might not. Your mom might just need a couple of more days to get extubated. Extubation is basically the removal of the breathing tube.

Does she need to come off all sedation? Are her kidneys working? Is her liver working? For example, has she been on sedatives and opiates for many days and it has been stopped, but because her kidneys aren’t working and her liver isn’t working, it takes time for sedatives, and opiates to get out of the body system, and that might just keep her asleep. So, there’s a number of questions you need to ask, and the number of questions you don’t even know you need to ask.

So, I hope that answers your question. When you send me questions here at intensivecarehotline.com, make them as precise as possible. But once again, that’s why 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 because once you know how to manage them, everything will change for you. Once you know what questions to ask, but you don’t know what questions to ask until you’ve worked in intensive care for decades like I have.

I have worked in critical care nursing for 25 years in 3 different countries, where I worked as a nurse manager in critical care for over 5 years, and I’ve been consulting and advocating for families in intensive care here at intensivecarehotline.com, all around the world since 2013. I can very, very confidently say that we have saved many lives for our clients in intensive care. You can verify that on our https://intensivecarehotline.com/testimonials/, and you can verify that on our intensivecarehotline.com podcast section where we have done client interviews and you can listen to the podcast and to the videos, what our clients say.

That’s why we have helped hundreds and hundreds of members and clients over the years to improve their lives instantly when they have a loved one in intensive care, making sure they can make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence, making sure the loved ones get the best care and treatment always.

That’s why I do one-on-one consulting and advocacy over the phone, Zoom, Skype, WhatsApp, whichever medium works best for you. I talk to you and your families directly. I handhold you through this once in a lifetime situation that you simply cannot afford to get wrong. I also talk to doctors and nurses directly with you or on your behalf. When I talk to doctors and nurses directly, I ask all the questions that you haven’t even considered asking but must be asked when you have a loved one critically ill in intensive care. I also represent you in family meetings with intensive care teams.

We also do medical record reviews in real time, so that you can get a second opinion in real time. We also do medical record reviews after intensive care if you have unanswered questions, if you need closure, or if you are suspecting medical negligence.

We also have a membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care, and you can become a member at intensivecarehotline.com, if you click on the membership link, or if you go to intensivecaresupport.org  directly. In the membership, you have access to me and my team, 24 hours a day, in the membership area and via email, and we answer all questions intensive care related. In the membership, you also have exclusive access to 21 e-books and 21 videos that are only exclusively accessible for our members. All of that will help you to make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, influence, making sure your loved one gets best care and treatment. Of course, in the membership, you also have exclusive access to me and my team, 24 hours a day, in the membership area and via email, and we answer all questions intensive care related.

All of that, you get at 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.

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

I also do a weekly YouTube Live where I answer your questions live on the show. You will get notification for the YouTube live if you’re a subscriber to my YouTube channel or a subscriber to my intensivecarehotline.com email newsletter at intensivecarehotline.com.

Thank you so much for watching.

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

Take care for now.

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