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

So, today’s tip is about Lara and Lara asks, “My mom is not waking up from propofol in ICU.” And this is a comment we’re getting all the time that people are not waking up after an induced coma in intensive care, what specifically that they’re not waking up after propofol.

Now, let me start with this. 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 is exactly what we’re dealing with here. Your mom may not wake up from propofol, and there could be a number of reasons for it but let me break this down for you.

Propofol is a short-acting sedative, which means if someone is having propofol, they should wake up reasonably quickly because propofol is short-acting. Its half-life is really short. So, once it’s switched off, it should disappear out of the body system very quickly and people should wake up.

Now, this is assuming that there is no other event happening, i.e., God forbid, has your mom had a stroke in the meantime? Has your mom had other neurological events? Has she had a brain bleed? Has she had seizures in the meantime that potentially went undetected while she was in an induced coma? On top of that, has she had high doses of opiates such as morphine, fentanyl? Has she had other sedatives in the meantime, such as Versed or midazolam? Also, on top of that, is her critical illness simply keeping her weak and she’s simply not ready to wake up?

I have seen patients in ICU that are so critical ill, and you wake them up from an induced coma and they just simply need to rest. They need to sleep. They’re not ready to wake up, irrespective of what propofol does or doesn’t do.

So, the first thing in a situation like this is find out what else is happening. When someone is critically in intensive care and is in an induced coma, there are dozens of things happening simultaneously. You need to look at what else is happening. What other medications is your mom on? What are her blood results? What are diagnostic tests saying? What are chest x-rays saying? What ventilation settings is she on? What are arterial blood gases is showing? There’s a multitude of things that need to be looked at. It’s like piecing together a very complex puzzle to get to the answers.

So, whilst you think your mom may not wake up after she had propofol, it’s probably an accurate statement, but the question is, what else is happening? And you can really do a deep dive into the searching for answers if you have someone looking at it that has worked in intensive care for long periods of time. I have worked in intensive care for over 20 years in three different countries. So, I believe I understand intensive care inside out, but I need more information in a situation like this.

So, part of what we offer is we speak to doctors and nurses directly. We look at medical records. So, we have a whole range of services where we can help you with digging down very deep into those questions because intensive care teams often tell you only half of the story. They are very selective in the information they’re giving out. And unless you’re asking the right questions  and all the right questions, you’re not getting all the right answers.

So, that is 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].

Also, check out our membership for families in intensive care at intensivecaresupport.org. There, you have access to me and my team, 24 hours a day, and we answer all questions, intensive care and also Intensive Care at Home related.

If you need a medical record review while your loved one is in intensive care, please contact us as well. We review medical records and break information down for you so that you can actually understand it and you don’t get booked down by medical jargon. And we can do that in real time while your loved one is in ICU. All you need is access to the medical records, which is your right to get access to medical records. If you need help there, please let us know as well. We also provide medical record reviews after intensive care, but we recommend to do it while your loved one is in ICU, so you’re getting real time evaluation.

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

Thanks for watching.

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