Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

If you want to know what the outcome is if you get told by the intensive care team that your loved one is not going to survive, stay tuned! I’ve got news for you.

My name is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com with another quick tip for families in intensive care.

So today, I have another testimonial from one of our clients that we worked with over the last couple of months. The client tells us that we helped them to save their sister’s life because their sister went into ICU with a cardiac arrest and hypoxic brain injury. The family was told she won’t survive and even if she does survive, she won’t have any “quality of life.” Therefore, the intensive care team says said it’s in her “best interest” to die and move to hospice. The family wouldn’t have a bar of it, and they said, “No, we want everything to be done, and we will fight for her life,” which is what they did with our help. 

We advised them along the way and here is the testimonial.

“Hi Patrik,

Sorry, I haven’t got back to you sooner. Things had gotten very intense, and I needed a break for my health and peace of mind. 

My sister was discharged to home a week ago, last Friday, just a few days short of a two month stay in mainly ICU and in the hospital. She asked to do outpatient rehab and has moved back in her apartment. She is able to walk while holding on to someone’s arm and is now speaking clearly. Her memory and focus are greatly impaired. She has a memory gap of many years but is still slowly remembering things. The hospital has not gotten her into speech therapy until the end of January which is disappointing.

I will be sending you some detailed reports as I am sure you probably want to know what transpired with medical details. Things were touch and go as the doctor decided on her own that my sister was decisional, and though she and my siblings had talked my sister into a PEG (Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy). 

Fortunately, my sister backed out of it and said no. I think that PEG was scheduled three times with the constant threat of that or hospice care. I give great credit to you and your team for giving me the guidance to help keep her alive and stand up to the egregious pressure from the hospital staff and my siblings.

I will be writing you soon with a more detailed summary. Of course, I’m willing to provide you with any info so I can help others, what they might learn from my experience. No one should ever have to go through this kind of hell when their loved one is sick.”

So, thank you to the client who wrote that in. We were very proud that we were part of saving another life because that is really what it came down to. We said to the family at the time, “Well, this is a perceived end of life situation and not a real end of life situation.” And we were once again, right, in our assumption.

So, I have worked in critical care nursing for 25 years in three different countries where I’ve worked as a nurse manager for over 5 years. I’ve been consulting and advocating for families in intensive care since 2013 here at intensivecarehotline.com. I can very confidently say that we have saved many lives just as in our testimonial today. It’s one of many lives we saved over the years. You can verify that on our testimonial section at intensivecarehotline.com. You can verify it on our intensivecarehotline.com podcast section where we’ve done client interviews. We have helped hundreds and hundreds of members and clients over the years, saving their loved ones’ lives, improving their loved ones’ outcomes, and improving our clients’ lives instantly.

That’s why I do one-on-one consulting and advocacy over the phone, Zoom, Skype, whichever medium works best for you. I handhold you through this once in a lifetime situation that you simply can’t afford to get wrong. I also talk to doctors and nurses directly, on your behalf or with you, and I ask all the questions that you haven’t even considered asking but must be asked when you have a loved one critically ill in intensive care. When I talk to doctors and nurses directly, I hold them accountable just like we did in this situation, which has gotten the outcome for the client that the client wanted.

I also represent you in family meetings with intensive care teams.

We also do medical record reviews in real time so that you can get a second opinion in real time. We also do medical record reviews after intensive care if you have unanswered questions, if you need closure, or if you are suspecting medical negligence.

We also have a membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care, and you can become a member if you go to intensivecarehotline.com, if you click on the membership link or if you go to intensivecaresupport.org directly. In the membership, you have access to me and my team, 24 hours a day, in the membership area and via email, and we answer all questions intensive care related. You will also have exclusive access to 21 eBooks and 21 videos that are not publicly available, only available to our members. That will help you to make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence so that your loved one gets best care and treatment always.

All of that you get at intensivecarehotline.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website or simply send us an email to [email protected] with your questions.

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

I also do a weekly YouTube live where I answer your questions live on a show and you will get notification for the YouTube live if you are a subscriber to my YouTube channel or if you are a subscriber to my intensivecarehotline.com email newsletter.

Thank you so much for watching.

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

Take care for now.

Related Articles:

Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: What Needs to Happen for Next Steps to Get My Mother Off the Ventilator in Intensive Care? Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: ICU Doesn’t Provide Advanced Treatment They Only Give Me Negative News! Help! Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: Should My Dad with Tracheostomy and Brain Injury Go to a Specialized Rehab Facility or to LTAC (Long-Term Acute Care)? Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: More LTAC (Long Term Acute Care) Madness, You Won’t Believe This! Would You Send Your Loved One to LTAC On Ventilation & Tracheostomy? Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: I’m a Case Manager, Does My Client Need a Tracheostomy or Can it be Avoided?