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Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com with another quick tip for families in intensive care.
Today’s tip is about suffering in intensive care versus continuing treatment in intensive care.
So many families in intensive care come to us and they say things like, the intensive care team is telling them that they should stop life support so that their loved one can stop suffering. And that it wouldn’t be “in their best interest” to continue treatment because there’s too much suffering.
Now I can tell you, after having worked in intensive care for over 20 years in three different countries, I can tell you that suffering is inevitable. And the question that needs to be asked is, does your loved one want to live or not? And how much suffering are they prepared to put up with?
Now, I argue that any life is worth saving and that, unfortunately, in intensive care people do suffer and it is often time limited. Now, are there people that are suffering and don’t make it out of intensive care alive? Yes, there are. Of course there are, unfortunately, but you got to put the numbers in perspective. Around 90% of intensive care patients do survive, and about 10% of intensive care patients do not survive. So the odds are in your loved one’s favor. And you need to educate yourself around what the intensive care team is not telling you.
And also what you need to know, intensive care teams are always negative by default, and you got to read between the lines. So what I mean by that, they’re trying to protect their turf. They’re trying to protect them from the worst case scenario. What’s their worst case scenario? Their worst case scenario is to look after a patient in intensive care indefinitely with an uncertain outcome. And many patients in intensive care, fit that criteria.
And by giving you the sales pitch, “that suffering is not worth for your loved one”, they’re protecting their worst case scenario and they’re trying to avoid it. I’ve made plenty of videos around, questions that you need to ask around what the intensive care team is trying to hide from you. And people will say in intensive care that, even if your loved one is going to survive and is going through all this, all the suffering, they end up in a nursing home, they can’t have a quality of life that’s good enough and so forth.
Now, the question is what quality of life is acceptable for you and your family? It’s not up to the intensive care team to make decisions about what quality of life is acceptable for you or for your family.
So that is my quick tip for today.
Suffering is definitely worthwhile, if your loved one can survive and then eventually can make their own decision when to stop the suffering, because that’s the ultimate goal. So your loved one can get to a point where they can make their own decision, not the intensive care team making decisions about their life. Not you making decisions about their life. You are their advocate and you need to help them to go from A to B so they can be in a position to make their own decisions about their own life.
That’s my quick tip for today.
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 send us an email to [email protected].
Like this video, subscribe to my YouTube channel, click the notification bell, and leave your comments and insights below or any questions you have. And I’ll talk to you in a few days.
This is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com and I’ll talk to you in a few days. Take care.