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

Yesterday, I had an email from a reader, Therese and Therese says, my dad had double open heart bypass surgery three days ago. He had a blockage of 95% in one of his arteries and two 70% blockages.

Now he’s been in the induced coma for three days now. They are trying to wake him up, but every time they’re trying to wake him up and getting up out of the induced coma and get him off the ventilator, he’s panicking and they have to re-sedate him. So what should we do in a situation like that?

Well, that’s a great question Therese and it’s something that happens all the time when patients have open heart surgery, especially if it’s complicated. If you’re saying your dad had a 95% blockage in one artery and two 70% blockages, that might have been complicated and it might’ve been prolonged surgery. And he might’ve had some bleeding after the surgery. He might’ve had an irregular heart rhythm and so forth.

Therese, 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 and they don’t know how to manage doctors and nurses in intensive care to get better outcomes.

So a lot of it depends on the situation. What complications have occurred, if any? Are they giving the right sedation? Are they ventilating him correctly? When someone is critically in intensive care, there’s often 20, 30, 40 things happening simultaneously and all of these little things are important.

So, unless you understand intensive care inside out, it would be very difficult for you to find out what’s exactly happening because you got to ask the right questions.

So in a situation like that, what I would recommend is for you and I to get on the phone and then we’re going to talk to the doctors and ask all the right questions and find out whether they’re giving him the right treatment or not.

Unless you have a professional advocate on your side in a situation like that, that understands intensive care inside out, it will be difficult for you to get the right answers, get the right treatment for your dad.

So that’s my tip for today.

If you have a loved one in intensive care and you need help, go to intensivecarehotline.com and call us on one of the numbers on the top of the website, or send us an email to [email protected].

Also like this video, comment down below what you want to see next, or what questions you have and subscribe to my YouTube channel so that you get the regular updates for families in intensive care.

Thanks for watching.

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