Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

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

So this morning I was talking to a client, she has her 43-year old brother in intensive care with liver failure and cardiac arrest and the doctors are saying that he has an anoxic brain injury and he’s not waking up and he’s on a ventilator. He’s in a natural coma now, and he’s not waking up.

So she’s also saying that the intensive care team is pushing the families towards the withdrawal of treatment and basically wants to let their 43-year old brother die.

So here’s my tip. 6 or 7 days that the client’s brother has been in intensive care, for 6 or 7 days, and that’s not a long time. So like you’ve heard me say before the biggest challenge for families in intensive care is simply that they don’t know what they don’t know.

And you know, this family comes to us and thinks, if he’s not waking up after six or seven days, all hope is lost. And that is simply not accurate, six or seven days in intensive care is not a long time, even six or seven weeks in intensive care and not waking up.

That just simply means it takes time and just because someone has an anoxic brain injury doesn’t mean they can’t have quality of life. They probably won’t be able to go back to where they were before. But that doesn’t mean that they can’t live a quality of life that’s acceptable to them and to the family.

So you always have to question and again, the biggest challenge for families in intensive care is that you don’t know what you don’t know. You don’t know what to look for. You don’t know what questions to ask, and you don’t know how to manage doctors and nurses, and you don’t know your rights as patients and families.

And that’s what we specialize in here at intensivecarehotline.com. We specialize on patient and family rights in intensive care. So, just because the intensive care team wants to push towards a withdrawal of treatment to free up their ICU bed that’s in demand, doesn’t mean that you can’t have more time.

You can have all the time in the world if you exercise your rights. And again, that’s where we can help you with, because again, we know patient and family rights in intensive care inside out.

So don’t give up just because the ICU team is negative. You can have all the time in the world with the right advocacy and with the right strategies.

So that’s my tip for today. Like this video, comment down below what questions you have and subscribe to my YouTube channel for updates for families in intensive care.

Also, if you have a loved one in intensive care, go on our website, intensivecarehotline.com and call us on one of the numbers on the top of the website.

Thanks for watching.

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