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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 John and John writes that his 54-year old dad has been in ICU for 45 days after COVID-19 and he’s been on the breathing tube, on a ventilator on a 100% of oxygen and 15 parts per million (ppm) nitric oxide.
So, John knows that normally a tracheostomy should be done after about 10 to 14 days of ventilation with a breathing tube or an endotracheal tube and he said that the ICU has been refusing the tracheostomy, which from our perspective is very inappropriate because again, all the ICU literature suggests that a tracheostomy needs to be done after 10 to 14 days of ventilation with a breathing tube and now, his dad is at day 45.
So he keeps saying that the ICU is pressuring him to agree to a DNR and to a withdrawal of treatment and John keeps saying to the ICU team to keep pushing forward and to keep doing everything that they can. And John is absolutely right. Why would he agree on his very young 54-year old dad to stop treatment?
And also again, the ICU hasn’t been providing basic care and treatment by not providing his dad with a tracheostomy after day 10 to 14.
So John is probably unaware of his rights as a medical power of attorney and again, that’s where we can help you with, we can help you educate on your rights as a medical power of attorney for your dad, that’s in ICU critically ill.
So that is my tip for today, that you, as a family member and the medical power of attorney has every right to persist on treating your dad again as hospital policies and often the state and national laws that confirmed that you have every right to avoid a DNR and a withdrawal of treatment.
That’s my tip for today. This is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com.
If you have a loved one in intensive care, go and check out our case studies at intensivecarehotline.com. Send me an email to [email protected] or contact us on one of the numbers on the top of our website at intensivecarehotline.com.
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