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

So today I want to once again talk about the characteristics of families in intensive care who get what they want and who are not beholden by the “agenda” of intensive care teams and who are negotiating successfully with intensive care teams.

So case in point, we are currently working with a client who has their 33-year-old son and brother in intensive care after hypoxic brain injury, after cardiac arrest. And the intensive care team was pretty quick in saying to the family, well, there’s no chance of survival and even if he did survive, he won’t have any perceived quality of life. And that he won’t survive for a few more days.

Anyway, they were then going on to brain death testing which the family by the way had not consented to but the patient was not deemed as being brain dead. So, therefore, there was no reason for him to not continue treatment.

So, in any case, like I always say, 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. They don’t know their rights, and they don’t know how to manage doctors and nurses in intensive care.

So then obviously the family reached out to us and we started working with them and we obviously educated them on their rights, that intensive care teams can’t just withdraw treatment without a family or next of kin or medical power of attorney consent.

Next, we asked the family to get access to the medical records, which by the way, took weeks to achieve in this case because the intensive care unit didn’t want to be transparent. And we’re putting barriers up, what is it that hospitals have to hide by not releasing medical records?

Now, finally, medical records are there, but in this day and age in 2024 it should be no more complicated than giving a family, a username and a password and a link to an app or to a website and the medical records should be in there. Should be no more complicated than that. What is it that hospitals have to hide?

And then after we spoke to doctors, and nurses, after we looked at the clinical realities which included kidney failure at the time, it included low blood pressure, which led to kidney failure. We successfully advocated for having inotropes and vasopressor started to get the kidney infusion going and since then, urea and BUN levels and creatinine levels are going down and urine output is increasing.

So it really all comes down to you taking full responsibility for what is happening. That is one of the major distinctive characteristics of families in intensive care who get what they want.

Now, there are no guarantees. But let’s just say you have a loved one in intensive care, that might be done. You still want to have a say in how that’s going to occur. Hospitals often try to “sell” families on the one-size-fits-all all scenario. “Oh your loved one is going to die, let’s just stop everything”.

Now, also in this situation, the intensive care team said, well, there’s no way your brother, your son is going to survive until another 48 hours. Well, it’s now been 40-odd days that he has survived.

So, one also has to question the clinical judgment in a situation like that or the agenda of intensive care teams who might not have the best interest at heart of this family and the patient.

So really the characteristics of families in intensive care who get what they want is to take responsibility, take full responsibility for the outcomes, ask the right questions and most of all get help, get professional help. Get a second opinion. Contact us, so that we can show you what you can and what you need to do in situations like that so that you can make informed decisions, and have peace of mind, control, power and influence.

I can confidently and without any exaggeration say that we have saved lives here with intensivecarehotline.com with our consulting and advocacy. And even if people didn’t survive, we made at least sure that families have a say in how and when the end of life happens as much as it’s controllable. And once again, that leaves you with making informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power and influence.

Now, therefore, we have also created membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care where you can get access to, if you go to intensivecarehotline.com and you click on the membership link or you go to intensivecaresupport.org directly.

In the membership, you have access to me and my team 24 hours a day in the membership area and via email and we answer all questions, intensive care related and we give you the tools, tips and strategies so that you can make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power and influence. And most importantly, we give you a second opinion.

If you have a loved one in intensive care, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime situation that you can’t afford to get wrong and we are here to help and guide you through this.

Now, I also offer one-on-one consulting and advocacy over the phone, Skype, Zoom WhatsApp, and whichever medium works best for you. And I talked to you and your families directly. I talked to doctors and nurses directly. I asked all the questions that you haven’t even considered asking but must be asked when you have a loved one in intensive care.

Now, I have worked in intensive care/critical care for over 20 years, nearly 25 years in three different countries where I also worked as a nurse manager in intensive care for over five years. I have been consulting and advocating for families in intensive care since 2013 at intensivecarehotline.com. We’ve been consulting and advocating with families in intensive care all over the world. And like I said, it is without any hint of exaggeration that we saved lives with our consulting and advocacy. You can look up our testimonial section and you can look up some podcast interviews with our clients, verifying what I’m saying here.

We also offer medical record reviews in real-time so that you can get a second opinion in real-time. We also offer medical record reviews after intensive care if you have unanswered questions if you need closure or if you are simply suspecting medical negligence.

Lastly, I also represent you in family meetings with intensive care teams and I work out a strategy with you, on what to do in family meetings with intensive care teams. What to say, what not to say, biggest strategy out of all, do you need to even go to a family meeting with intensive care teams? Do you need to give intensive care teams a platform to give you bad news? So those are all the things that you need to think about when you have a loved one in intensive care because once again, you don’t know what you don’t know.

And all of that you get at intensivecarehotline.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website or simply send us an email to [email protected].

Now, if you like my videos, subscribe to my YouTube channel for regular updates for families in intensive care, click the like button, click the notification bell. Comment below what you want to see next, what questions and insights you have. Share the video with your friends and families.

Thank you so much for watching.

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

Take care for now.