My name is Patrick Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com, where we instantly improve the lives of families of critically ill patients in intensive care so that you can make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence, making sure your loved one always gets the best care and treatment, even if you’re not a doctor or a nurse in intensive care.

I have worked in critical care nursing for over 25 years in three different countries, where I worked as a nurse manager for over five years in intensive care, and I’ve been consulting and advocating for families in intensive care here at intensivecarehotline.com since 2013. I can confidently say that we have saved many lives for our clients in intensive care, and you can verify that in our testimonial section and in our podcast section, where we have done client interviews at Intensivecarehotline.com

Tracy wrote to me and said that her mom is in ICU. The ICU doctors have declared her mom to be futile and have taken away her medication. The ICU team have told Tracy — who is her mom’s designated medical power of attorney — that the ICU team now has the power to do what it wants and that it is taking over. Tracy is against the withdrawal of treatment  and wants to know: will they continue her mom’s care, and what can she do if they don’t?

Tracy, I want to start by saying: you are not alone, and you are not powerless — not even close. What the ICU team appears to be doing is not how the law, or your rights, even remotely work.

Let me break this down for you.

What Does “Futile” Mean in ICU?

When the ICU team or an ICU doctor uses the word futile, they are making a clinical and ethical judgment that, in their view, continued treatment will not lead to a meaningful recovery, or that the burdens of treatment outweigh any possible benefit.

ICU teams and ICU doctors have the right to form that opinion, but here’s what is critical for you to understand: futility is one of the most contested concepts in intensive care medicine. There is no universally agreed definition. It is subjective, it is a perception, and it is not a legal determination.

An ICU team or ICU doctor saying “I believe treatment is futile” is very different from an ICU doctor having the legal authority to withdraw treatment against the clearly documented wishes of the patient’s legally appointed substitute decision maker — which is you, Tracy. Those are two completely different things, and the gap between them is where your power as designated medical power of attorney lives.

I also want to say: if they say continued treatment will not lead to a meaningful recovery, what is meaningful? What’s meaningful to them might be very different from what’s meaningful for you. One of the first things you need to ask in a situation like this — and I already know you’ve asked it — is: where’s the urgency, and where’s the rush? Why is there such an urgency to end someone’s life, and no urgency to save your mom’s life?

Your Rights as Designated Medical Power of Attorney

As your mom’s designated medical power of attorney for health decisions, you are her legally recognized substitute decision maker. This means:

• You have the right to be informed about all treatment decisions.
• You have the right to give or withhold consent to treatment on your mom’s behalf.
• You have the right to request continuation of treatment that you believe is in your mom’s best interest.
• You have the right to access her medical records — and I cannot stress this enough: you must get those records, right now.

• You have the right to seek a second medical opinion.
• You have the right to escalate to the hospital’s patient rights service.
• You have the right to involve an external advocate.
• You have the right to obtain legal representation.
• You have the right to potentially escalate this to the hospital’s ethics committee, though I generally advise against involving a hospital ethics committee, since committee members are usually hospital employees who will decide in the hospital’s best interest. There may be exceptions to this.

What you do not have, Tracy, is an obligation to simply accept what the ICU team is telling you — especially when they claim they now have the power to override you as designated medical power of attorney. That is not accurate, and it is a major red flag.

From my two and a half decades of ICU nursing experience, hospitals and ICUs in particular are very good at pretending they can do whatever they want. Nothing could be further from the truth, because the minute you challenge them, that’s when things usually change.

Can ICU Teams Legally Override Your Medical Power of Attorney?

Here’s the reality: in Australia, the United States, and the UK, if a treating team believes treatment is futile and there’s a dispute with a substitute decision maker, there is a formal legal process. That process involves applying to the relevant state tribunal — for example, VCAT in Victoria, Australia, or NCAT in New South Wales — or, in other countries, the Supreme Court. We’ve helped clients around the world, in Australia, the US, and the UK, take their cases to court, and in most cases, the courts have decided in the client’s favor, because ending someone’s life on the basis that treatment is “futile” is simply not good enough. And, as I said, when you challenge it, ICU teams often quickly backtrack, because they know they can’t just proceed unilaterally.

It doesn’t happen because a doctor or ICU team tells you they are “taking over.” Until a formal legal determination has been made, you remain your mom’s designated power of attorney, and your decisions carry legal weight. If the doctor or ICU team proceeds to withdraw treatment without due process and without your consent, that is a serious matter requiring urgent legal escalation. If someone withdraws treatment without the family’s consent — and in this case it cannot be obtained because your mom is unconscious — that could be perceived as euthanasia, or even murder. I’m not a legal expert, but I do know that patients and families in ICU have rights, and once you exercise those rights, ICU teams are usually quick to backtrack. If you don’t push back, they will walk all over you. That’s the reality.

What to Do if the ICU Team Wants to Withdraw Treatment Against Your Wishes

Put your objections in writing today. Send a written letter to the treating ICU team, the ICU nurse unit manager, the director of nursing, the hospital CEO or general manager, the hospital patient advocate, and the chief medical officer.  Clearly state that you are the medical power of attorney and that you do not, under any circumstances, consent to withdrawal of treatment, and that you require full documentation of all decisions being made. Request that the hospital CEO, medical director, or — if genuinely independent of the hospital — the ethics committee be convened urgently.

Contact state health complaints bodies, such as the health complaints commissioner or department of health. Seek legal advice from a healthcare lawyer.  Call us urgently at intensivecarehotline.com. We deal with situations like this almost every day and can help you very quickly. We have saved many lives with just one or two phone calls, reminding ICU teams of their legal obligations.

Treatment Options for Tracy’s Mom

This is a different conversation than withdrawal of treatment. Without knowing the specific clinical details of Tracy’s mom’s case, I want to be clear: there may be treatment options that haven’t been properly explored or discussed. This is why you must get all of the medical records
right now — until you have them, you cannot know whether the futility determination is clinically sound or whether it might be premature or based on an incomplete assessment.

Treatment options that may still be on the table include:

Continuation of life-sustaining support while a second opinion is obtained

Referral to a specialist in your mom’s specific condition

Weaning trials if she’s ventilated, and transition to non-invasive ventilation.  Tracheostomy insertion to facilitate a longer-term care pathway.  Transfer to another ICU for a fresh clinical assessment.

If the decision ultimately comes to end of life: palliative care at home, on your terms, with proper nursing support and dignity

All of these options should be properly considered and documented before any withdrawal of treatment occurs. As medical power of attorney, you have the right to demand that.

Why Medical Records Are Non-Negotiable

You cannot advocate effectively for your mom without access to her medical records. The nursing notes, medical notes, medication charts, ICU observation charts, and investigation results are the foundation of everything. They show what has been done, what has been decided, and what the clinical rationale is.

When you call us at intensivecarehotline.com, the first thing we do is help you understand those records. We sit with you, go through them, explain what they mean, and help you formulate the right questions for the ICU team. We can also join a consulting call with the ICU team alongside you, so you have an experienced critical care professional advocating for your mom.

Get the medical records today. It is absolutely non-negotiable.

Intensive Care at Home as a Long-Term Option

You may not have heard of Intensive Care at Home, but for families in your situation, this option exists. If your mom is stable enough, or can be stabilized, and requires ongoing ventilation support, tracheostomy care, or complex nursing care — with or without ventilation — there’s a real alternative to remaining in ICU: home-based intensive care.

At Intensive Care at Home, more information is available at intensivecareathome.com. We provide 24-hour, critical-care-registered-nurse-led home nursing for ventilator-dependent patients. We operate in all states and territories of Australia and are third-party accredited for intensive care home nursing, and we also help families in the United States, Canada, and the UK go home whenever we can.

This means your mom could receive the same level of clinical care she requires at home, with family, with dignity, away from institutional environments like ICU. For patients who cannot be weaned from the ventilator — whether on invasive ventilation with tracheostomy or non-invasive ventilation such as BiPAP or CPAP — home-based intensive care is a proven, viable, and often preferable alternative to indefinite ICU admission. For families facing end-of-life decisions, home-based palliative care with proper nursing support is a dignified and private alternative to withdrawal of treatment in the ICU.

Go to intensivecareathome.com to learn more.

How to Get Help Right Now

You can book a consulting call with me at intensivecarehotline.com, call one of the numbers at the top of our website, or email [email protected]. My team and I understand intensive care and ICU inside out. We understand the law and your rights around substitute decision-making, and we understand the pressure families like Tracy’s are under every day. We are here to help — and, more importantly, we are here to get results and save lives.

Summary

1. An ICU team or ICU specialist declaring treatment “futile” does not give them the legal authority to override your designated medical power of attorney and withdraw treatment without due process. This is not how the law works in the US, Canada, Australia, or the UK.

2. As designated medical power of attorney, you have real legal standing — use it. Put your objection in writing, request a review of the decision, and escalate to the patient rights, the hospital CEO or general manager, the director of nursing, and the medical director. Escalate further to your state health complaints commissioner or department of health if necessary. Ask the ICU team directly: why is there urgency to end your mom’s life, and no urgency to help her get better?

Get all of your mom’s medical records. It is absolutely non-negotiable — we cannot advocate for you without them.

4. Call us at Intensivecarehotline.com. We can get on a call with the ICU team quickly, review the medical records, help you prepare for family meetings, and join a consulting call with you and the ICU team. You will see the dynamics change in your favor quickly.

Explore all options, including home-based intensive care at intensivecareathome.com — a long-term, dignified, and private alternative to ICU.

I hope this has given you clarity and confidence, Tracy, to keep fighting for your mom. You’re doing the right things — don’t give up.

I have worked in critical care nursing for 25 years in three different countries where I worked as a nurse manager for over five years in intensive care. And I’ve been consulting and advocating for families in intensive care since 2013 here at intensivecarehotline.com. And I can very confidently say that we have saved many lives with our consulting and advocacy, because of our insights, and you can verify that on our testimonial section  at intensivecarehotline.com and you can verify it on our intensivecarehotline.com podcast section, where we have done client interviews.  And because our advice is absolutely life-changing, right?

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 why we help you to improve your life instantly, making sure you make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence, making sure your loved one gets the best care and treatment always. And that’s why you can join a growing number of members and clients that we have helped over the years, saving their loved ones’ lives.

And that’s why I do one on one consulting and advocacy over the phone, Zoom, WhatsApp, whichever medium works best for you. And 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. And when I talk to families directly, I also talk to doctors and nurses directly, asking 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, so, if, in case 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 if you go to 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 I’ve personally written and recorded. And all of that will help you to improve your life instantly, make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence, making sure your loved one gets the best care and treatment always.

And all of that you get at intensivecarehotline.com. Call us on one of the numbers at the top of our website or simply send us an email to support at intensivecarehotline.com with your questions.

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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.