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

Today, I want to talk about, how long does it take to wake up after a traumatic brain injury? So, currently we are working with a client who had a traumatic brain injury around three weeks ago after this gentleman fell off a scaffold during work and he fell off a scaffold six meters head forward, apparently he was limp before he fell down.

So initially the CT scan showed some bleeds on the brain, of course, other fractures as well. But looking closer at the CT scan, the bleed compared to other CT scans that I’ve seen over the years, it wasn’t actually that big. He had a craniectomy, basically meaning he had parts of his skull removed so that it was easier for the intensive care team to manage and control intracranial pressures. If intracranial pressures, which are the pressures in the brain are too high, patients can die. If it goes above a certain level, patients die.

Anyway, so the brain pressures were pretty well controlled from the start. He was in an induced coma , but he wasn’t waking up. And as usual and if you’ve done any research, and if you’ve watched my videos before, the intensive care team was quick to point out that it’s in his “best interest” to remove life support and let him die because he won’t have any “perceived quality of life” going forward. We obviously objected to that and made sure that this gentleman gets best care and treatment, making sure he has a chance to recover and has a chance of the best quality of life possible going forward.

Lo and behold, after they had switched sedation off for a few days, there was no sign of life. But then eventually he woke up and it was quite clear that irrespective of the bleed that his brain is working. He was obeying commands. He was making eye contact with his family. He was doing purposeful movements and so forth. After another few days he lost consciousness again for about 24 to 48 hours. Again, the intensive care team was very quick to paint the doom and gloom picture saying that, again he won’t have any quality of life. He’s not going to wake up. And it’s again, “in his best interest” to stop life support.

Again, we objected and just said, “Look, this gentleman needs some time, it’s often two steps forward and one step back in intensive care.” And again, as we all know, intensive care units are very quick in wanting to empty their beds because there’s so much demand and by letting people pass away, that’s one way to manage their beds. Whereas we all know it takes time for people to recover in intensive care and intensive care teams don’t want to give people the time.

Anyway, so far, the gentleman is still in ICU. We are advocating for him and making sure the intensive care team is not doing anything that is inappropriate or illegal because withdrawing life support against family or patient consent is illegal. And also keep in mind, now he’s at a point where we know his brain is working, let him wake up and let him decide what he wants to do. That is the right thing to do.

That is my quick tip for today. Do not rush into any decisions just because someone had a traumatic brain injury, it takes time. It’s often two steps forward, one step back. And some people do wake up, some people don’t. But you got to give it the time and the benefit of the doubt without brushing into any decisions and let the patient make the decision, if that’s possible at all.

That’s my quick tip for today.

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

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