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

So yesterday, I had an email from a reader who says, “My mom has to go to LTAC in three days.” And my response to that is, well, she doesn’t have to do anything. If the intensive care team asks you to jump off a bridge, would you jump off a bridge? So, if the intensive care team says to you, “Well, your mom has to go to LTAC (Long Term Acute Care) in three days”, would you send her to LTAC? Assuming you’ve done all your research and you’ve read all our blogs about LTAC, about all the feedback we’ve been getting about LTAC, look up the online reviews for LTAC and see what people actually say about LTAC. Would you still send your mom to LTAC even if the intensive care team says to you she has to go to LTAC in three days? Or the answer is of course, no.

It goes to show that 99% of families in intensive care just buy into the narrative of what intensive care teams tell them, and you need to stop doing that. You need to start doing your own research. You need to start advocating for what’s best for your loved one. We can tell you with a hundred percent guarantee, going to LTAC is not in the best interest of your loved one. Once again, look at the online reviews of LTACs.

LTAC is, if at all, the better version of a nursing home. And imagine someone going from intensive care, being critically ill, being extremely vulnerable, being as close to death as they’ve probably ever been, and they send them more or less to a nursing home, that’s madness. So, that’s why I keep saying over and over again, it is so important that you are doing your research from day one when you have a loved one in intensive care.

Now, here’s another tip when it comes to patients going to LTAC, and again, I should have pointed that out, this is exclusively for our audience in the U.S. because LTACs are unique to the U.S. They don’t exist in other countries really.

So, here’s another tip. So, often when patients in intensive care need a tracheostomy for example, in the U.S. specifically, the ICU team often wants a PEG (Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy tube) as well, which is a feeding tube through the stomach, through the abdominal wall. And as long as you don’t give consent to a PEG tube, you’re pretty safe of your loved one not going to LTAC at all because LTACs will only take patients with a tracheostomy and a feeding tube and a PEG tube. So, no need for a PEG tube. Patients can safely being fed through a nasogastric tube instead of a PEG tube. Also, a PEG tube is surgery, and why would you give consent to a surgical procedure if there’s no need for it?

I’ve looked after patients in intensive care with the nasogastric tube for months, and then there’s no issue. The only issue could be that patient keeps pulling it out, but that’s not often happening and it’s just the safer options and it stops your loved one going to LTAC. It’s as simple as that.

But also, before you even give consent to a tracheostomy, you need to ask the intensive care team, have they done everything beyond the shadow of a doubt to avoid the tracheostomy? And you will often find they haven’t, at least not when you know what questions to ask.

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 most families in ICU are dealing with.

They simply have no idea what to do. But the good news is help is at hand. You just need to contact us here at intensivecarehotline.com and we can walk you through all the issues step by step. We can show you how you regain power control, influence, how you can actually make informed decisions and not have intensive care teams tell you, “Well, in three days, your mom or your dad needs to go to LTAC.” That is ridiculous.

It’s also important that you take responsibility. Take responsibility for everything that’s happening, and that’s a very mature approach. It can also be confrontational for some of you watching this video, but you need to take responsibility for everything that’s happening. If the ICU team is walking all over you, it’s probably because you let them take responsibility for everything that’s happening. Start asking the right questions, get professional help, and then we can help you turn the situation around very, very quickly.

Once you have professionals on your team that no intensive care inside out, the dynamics will change in your favor. You will see that just by simply asking the questions that need to be asked, intensive care teams often retreat because they understand you have someone on your team who understands intensive care just as well as they do.

So, that’s 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 answer all questions intensive care related.

Also, if you need a medical record review for your loved one in intensive care in real time, contact us as well. We do medical record reviews in real time, so you can have that crucial second opinion that you need inevitably while you have a loved one in intensive care so you can avoid intensive care team telling you, “Well in three days your mom needs to go to LTAC.” We can put a stop to that. If you need a medical record review after intensive care. If you have unanswered questions, if you need closure, or if you are suspecting medical negligence, please contact us as well. We can help you with that as well.

Thanks for watching.

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

Take care.