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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 a phone call from a lady who said her 28-year-old son is in ICU with Duchenne Syndrome and he’s had an aspiration pneumonia at home while he was on BiPAP (Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure). And now he’s in ICU treating the aspiration pneumonia. He’s intubated, he is on inotropes, he’s on antibiotics, and slowly the pneumonia is clearing up and now they can’t wean him off the ventilator, which is not overly surprising with Duchenne Syndrome and BiPAP at home.

So, now they want to do a tracheostomy and the lady’s asking me whether what should be next? And will he be able to come off the ventilator? Now, hard to say whether he will be able to come off the ventilator, but if he’s on BiPAP at home before, chances are recently low, I believe to get him off the ventilator and the tracheostomy. Maybe he can have some time off the ventilator during the day once he’s more recovered from the pneumonia. But chances are he will need ventilation with the tracheostomy for significant amount of time during the day or the night, within a 24-hour cycle. So what’s the solution to that?

The solution to that is really to look at Intensive Care at Home services that are available, where ICU nurses come into the home and, take care of your son and then he can leave intensive care. That is the best option here in a situation like that.

And, that is my quick tip for today.

And you should check out intensivecareathome.com for more information on how to get your son home with intensive care nurses 24-hours a day. So also that he doesn’t have another aspiration pneumonia. From what you were telling me yesterday, you mentioned that you didn’t have any nursing support. So, when you look at intensivecareathome.com, there is a section called the Mechanical Home Ventilation Guidelines, which is an evidence-based research paper from over 20 years of Intensive Care at Home nursing and where the home mechanical ventilation guidelines clearly demand really to have intensive care nurses 24-hours a day when someone is at home on BiPAP. And of course, the same applies when someone is at home on a ventilator  with a tracheostomy. They need to have 24-hour ICU nursing at home with ICU nurses that have a minimum of two-years intensive care nursing experience.

Again, go and check out intensivecareathome.com for that.

Now, 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, have a look at our membership for families in intensive care at intensivecaresupport.org.

If you want a medical record review for your loved one in intensive care, contact us as well. Or if you need a medical record review after intensive care, we can help you with all of that.

And, subscribe to my YouTube channel for regular updates for families in intensive care and Intensive Care at Home. Share this video with your friends and families. Click the like button, click the notification bell and comment below what you want to see next and what questions and insights you have from this video.

Thanks for watching.

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