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Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com with another quick tip for families in intensive care.
So I had a question from a reader, Glenn and Glenn says, can a tracheostomy patient in ICU go home?
So that’s sort of a bit of a broad question and let me break this down for you so I can advise you on what that looks like in practice. So when somebody has a tracheostomy in ICU, usually the first steps leading up to it is the inability to be weaned off the ventilator, and the breathing tube or endotracheal tube in the mouth. So this breathing tube and endotracheal tube and mechanical ventilation, go also goes hand in hand with an induced coma and sedation.
But coming back to the point, when a tracheostomy is done because of the inability to come off the ventilator, the first step is to be weaned off ventilator. Now that can be done in ICU but it could also be done at home, which then leads into your answer, can somebody with a tracheostomy go home?
Absolutely, yes. So if somebody can go home on a ventilator with a tracheostomy, of course they can go home, just with a tracheostomy. Now how can they go home? Check out service intensive care at home you can find more information there at intensivecareathome.com. What we do there is we take patients home on mechanical ventilation with tracheostomy and we also take them home, if they “only have a tracheostomy” and they’re not ventilated.
What needs to happen in both cases is, you need ICU nurses 24 hours a day because the tracheostomy and mechanical ventilation require the specialist skills of an intensive care nurse and that’s why the only way you can safely go home with the tracheostomy or with the tracheostomy and ventilation is with ICU nurses 24 hours a day and again go and have a look at the intensivecareathome.com for more information.
Take care for now.
This is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com and I’ll see you in another quick tip in a few days.
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