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Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from INTENSIVECAREHOTLINE.COM , where we instantly improve the lives of Families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care, so that you can have PEACE OF MIND, real power, real control and so that you can influence decision making fast, even if you’re not a doctor or a nurse in Intensive Care!
In last week’s BLOG I’ve featured another PODCAST with our guest Ellie, who shared her and her mother’s story in Intensive Care “Podcast with Ellie who’s MUM has been in Intensive Care for 6 weeks on ECMO for ARDS! Listen to Ellie’s story and how she overcame most of the challenges!”
You can check out last week’s PODCAST by clicking on the link here!
In this week’s BLOG I want to show you
“How medical research dominates your critically ill loved one’s diagnosis and prognosis, as well as the care and treatment your loved one is receiving or not receiving!”
If your loved one has been admitted to Intensive Care for critical illness, you and your Family are facing one of the biggest challenges during your lifetime! In fact it often is a “ONCE IN A LIFETIME” situation and challenge!
And as a matter of fact, the fear, the frustration, the stress, the struggle and the vulnerability that you and your family are experiencing can be quite overwhelming.
And if you are reading this right now, chances are that you are facing the challenge that your critically ill loved one is
- very unstable and in a very critical condition
- in a life threatening situation
and those are situations that you may not have seen yourself in a few days ago and they are also those situations that you don’t want to and really that you can’t afford to get wrong!
And many of those difficult, challenging and sometimes heartbreaking situations can’t be solved by going on autopilot and they often can’t be solved by the Intensive Care team “doing their best”!
Why do I say this?
I say this because after more than 15 years of Intensive Care nursing in three different countries and after I have literally worked with thousands of critically ill Patients and their Families and after I have helped, counselled, hold hands and supported those Patients and their Families throughout those massive challenges they’ve faced in Intensive Care, I have seen both sides of the spectrum, both sides of the coins so to speak!
And by that I mean that on the one hand there are the critically ill Patients, there are their Families that are dealing with the heartbreak and on the other hand there is the Intensive Care team, usually having a mostly hidden agenda, a positioning and interests that goes way beyond your critically ill loved one’s diagnosis and prognosis!
It’s not your fault
And I know it’s not your fault! You and your Family put trust, confidence and faith in the Intensive Care team if your loved one is critically ill in Intensive Care and is facing one of those challenging and difficult situations that I mentioned before!
And the reality and the fact of the matter in Intensive Care however is that especially during those challenging and difficult situations, the Intensive Care team is making decisions “BEHIND THE SCENES”!
“BEHIND THE SCENES” is where the Intensive Care team is making decisions, “BEHIND THE SCENES” is where the Intensive Care team is positioning your critically ill loved one’s diagnosis and prognosis and “BEHIND THE SCENES” is where the Intensive Care team is having their meetings where the power play, the dynamics, the competing interests, the intrigue, the psychology and the hidden agendas come to light that will one way or another impact on the care and treatment your critically ill loved one is receiving or not receiving!
When I first started working in Intensive Care I was very surprised to find out about all the moving parts, about the “BEHIND THE SCENES” stuff, about everything that’s hidden away from Families of critically ill Patients such as the politics, the dynamics, the competing interests, the power play, the intrigue, the psychology and most of all the hidden agendas.
If I can do it, you can do it too
And the reality and the fact of the matter is that if I can learn that stuff and if I have gotten those insights, there is no reason why you can’t have those insights as well. As a matter of fact, it’s absolutely critical for you, for your Family and for your critically ill loved one to get a handle on what’s happening “BEHIND THE SCENES” in Intensive Care!
And one of those crucial, often well hidden, highly underestimated and disguised moving parts “BEHIND THE SCENES” in Intensive Care is medical research!
Recommended resources:
Medical research attracts 6, 7 or 8 figure $$$ funding per year into an Intensive Care Unit! It’s a massive industry, where key players such as Intensive Care doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies amongst others have massive interests in driving an agenda that goes way beyond your critically ill loved one’s diagnosis and prognosis!
I’ll give you a real world example so that it really hits home for you
If your critically ill loved one is facing one of those massive challenges and dilemmas where they are either
- very unstable and in a very critical condition
- in a life threatening situation
the Intensive Care team will weigh up their options against many criteria and those criteria include
- the clinical situation such as diagnosis and prognosis
- the financial situation, i.e. will the Intensive Care Unit make money or lose money when treating your critically ill loved one
- the bed situation and the consideration that other Patients require and are waiting for Intensive Care beds
- the medical research interests
Let’s just say that your critically ill loved one has been admitted to Intensive Care for a traumatic brain injury and/or head injury after a car accident.
Let’s also say that your critically ill loved one has been in an induced coma for three weeks to get the pressures in their brain under control, they had multiple surgeries on their brain during those three weeks and now it’s the time to get your loved one out of the induced coma.
At first after the sedation has been switched off to “wake up” your loved one after the induced coma, there are no signs of “waking up”! One week goes by, ten days go by and still no sign of your loved one “waking up”.
You and your Family are growing more and more impatient and slowly but surely you are getting more frustrated and you even lose hope.
Head and brain injury Patients are extremely vulnerable and you need to know what to do
The Intensive Care team is now calling a “Family meeting” and in the Family meeting the Intensive Care team is telling you that they think a “withdrawal of treatment” and/or a “limitation of treatment” would be “in the best interest” of your critically ill loved one! The Intensive Care team also suggests that an “NFR”(Not for resuscitation) or “DNR”(Do not resuscitate) would be “in the best interest” of your critically ill loved one!
Recommended resources:
You and your Family are shocked and you didn’t see that one coming as you were under the impression that head and brain injury Patients would need, time, nurturing and good care in order to “wake up”. And you’re absolutely right, time, nurturing and good care tend to have all the ingredients for a Patient with a severe head or brain injury to wake up!
However, what the Intensive Care team isn’t telling you is that initially when your critically ill loved one was first admitted to Intensive Care, they were enrolled into a medical research study about “hypothermia” for brain injuries, basically a medical research study about cooling your loved one, to minimise brain function and therefore supposedly optimize brain recovery.
Given that there are no signs of “waking up” and given that funds $$$ allocated for medical research would be better spend on other Patients where the Intensive Care team can continue doing medical research, the Intensive Care team therefore has a much higher interest in treating other Patients who are more acutely unwell and who attract $$$ funding for medical research!
You and your Family are totally taken aback and you and your Family didn’t see this one coming! And if in this challenging situation you are like 99% of Families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care who have no PEACE OF MIND, no control, no power and no influence and if you don’t question, the Intensive Care team can easily drive their agenda.
And once again if you are like 99% of Families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care who have no PEACE OF MIND, no control, no power and no influence and if you don’t question, you will be taking everything for “FACE VALUE” that the Intensive Care team is telling you!
Don’t fall into this psychological loophole
In fact you might even fall into a psychological loophole that many Families of critically ill Patients fall into, by being thankful, by being grateful to the Intensive Care team, because Families of critically ill Patients often feel guilt and shame by being a burden to other people.
I have seen so many Families of critically ill Patients falling into this psychological loophole and if they’re not aware about their own feelings, they will continue to be like 99% of Families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care who have no PEACE OF MIND, no control, no power and no influence!
That’s why it’s so easy for the Intensive Care team to drive their agenda, because they implicitly or explicitly play with your emotions!
Michael Schuhmacher was given 6 months to “wake up” and how much was at stake?
If you think about it, just as I’m writing this, Michael Schuhmacher, the world famous Formula one former world champion left Intensive Care after nearly 6 months in an Induced coma! He obviously sustained a severe and traumatic brain injury after his skiing accident!
Now I can tell you that many critically ill Patients in Intensive Care are not given 6 months to recover in Intensive Care after a severe head or brain injury and obviously given the publicity of Michael Schuhmacher’s case there was too much at stake for the treating Hospital and for the treating doctors!
Therefore, I ask you, how much is at stake for your critically ill loved one? I ask you, how much is at stake for the Intensive Care team?
Often the Intensive Care team is playing a “high stakes game” and only they know how to play!
Therefore it’s up to you to quickly learn how to play this “high stakes game”!
How can you QUICKLY learn to play this “HIGH STAKES GAME” and how can you have PEACE OF MIND, control, power and influence whilst your loved one is critically ill in Intensive Care?
You get to that all important feeling of PEACE OF MIND, CONTROL, POWER AND INFLUENCE when you download your FREE “INSTANT IMPACT” report NOW by entering your email below!
In Your FREE “INSTANT IMPACT” report you’ll learn quickly how to get PEACE OF MIND, real power and real control and how you can influence decision making fast, whilst your loved one is critically ill in Intensive Care! Your FREE “INSTANT IMPACT” Report gives you in-depth insight that you must know whilst your loved one is critically ill or is even dying in Intensive Care! Sign up and download your FREE “INSTANT IMPACT” REPORT now by entering your email below!
In your FREE “INSTANT IMPACT” REPORT you’ll learn how to speak the “secret” Intensive Care language so that the doctors and the nurses know straight away that you are an insider and that you know and understand what’s really happening in Intensive Care!
In your FREE report you’ll also discover
- How to ask the doctors and the nurses the right questions
- Discover the many competing interests in Intensive Care and how your critically ill loved one’s treatment may depend on those competing interests
- How to eliminate fear, frustration, stress, struggle and vulnerability even if your loved one is dying
- 5 “killer” tips& strategies helping you to get on the right path to PEACE OF MIND, control, power and influence in your situation
- You’ll get real world examples that you can easily adapt to your and your critically ill loved one’s situation
- How to stop being intimidated by the Intensive Care team and how you will be seen as equals
- You’ll get crucial ‘behind the scenes’ insight so that you know and understand what is really happening in Intensive Care
- How you need to manage doctors and nurses in Intensive Care(it’s not what you think)
Thank you for tuning into this week’s “BLOG” and I’ll see you again in another update next week!
Make sure you also check out our “YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED” section where we answer your questions or send me an email to [email protected] with your questions!
Also check out our Products section where you get more Ebooks, Videos and Audio recordings and where you can also get 1:1 consulting!
This is Patrik Hutzel from INTENSIVECAREHOTLINE.COM and I’ll see you again next week with another update!
Sincerely, your Friend
Patrik Hutzel