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Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com with another quick tip for families in intensive care.
So today I was talking to a client and the client was saying that her mother has been in ICU for the last 10 days on a ventilator with the tracheostomy after pneumonia and she has been extubated a few days ago and failed extubation, means the removal of the breathing tube.
After the failed extubation, the ICU team wanted to go to a tracheostomy straight away and the family asked or the client asked, can another extubation be done before a tracheostomy? Because obviously it’s much better to have the breathing tube removed rather than moving towards a tracheostomy and the answer is yes.
The second trial extubation can be done in most instances. And then you know, you can hopefully avoid the tracheostomy because the difference in recovery is just like day and night, going off life support, removing the breathing tube and then going on to a normal recovery as opposed to having a tracheostomy and then going on.
You know, for a long term stay in ICU or going on to a long-term acute care facility or going on to intensive care at home is just not the best option. So the recovery time by having the breathing tube removed is just so much quicker. So therefore sometimes it’s worth waiting a few more days doing another trial extubation and then avoiding the tracheostomy.
So that’s my tip for today. Like the video, comment down below what questions you want and subscribe to my YouTube channel. If you have any questions, if you have a loved one in intensive care, just have a look at intensivecarehotline.com and contact us on one of the numbers on the top of the website, or simply send me an email to [email protected].
This is Patrik from intensivecarehotline.com and I’ll talk to you in a few days.