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

So today, I have an email from Angie who says,

“Hi Patrik,

 I just found your website intensivecarehotline.com while searching on the web. I sadly lost my father in ICU a year ago in June.

My father went into ICU a year ago for mild breathing problems. Once admitted, they changed his medication most old people take. Now, in March of last year, my father was given a medication called amiodarone and just as a disclaimer here, amiodarone is usually given for AF (Atrial Fibrillation), also known as an irregular heart rhythm.

He really started to go downhill fast after this. He couldn’t walk much anymore. His breathing became really bad. He was shaking his arms. The specialist who ordered it ignored our serious concerns. It seemed that my father was getting new problems from this medication such as low thyroid function as well as kidney failure and those are both known side effects for amiodarone.

To make a long story short, last May, I took my father to the emergency room as his leg gave out after having morphine. During that week, we found my father in wet and soiled diapers 2 days in a row in hospital. My father never wore diapers before. He ended up having pressure sores.

By the late afternoon on the second day, my dad started to feel sick, nauseated, and very tired. I kept pushing very hard to talk to him, but he was having trouble breathing. His oxygen was still low at 1 liter but all of a sudden it went up to 9 liters.

He was getting slow in mind but not sleepy, but he then became hard to arouse. I kept being told he was tired and he’s an old man. They did a CT (Computed Tomography) scan, and the nurse told me it came back, but she couldn’t tell me the results or the report, which I found very strange.

Two days later, my dad was totally not himself. Mom and I found him like in much distress. Then I learned the hospital has no ICU unit. So, the doctor should have known this and had him out to another ICU the days before. If mom and I didn’t come that morning, I believe they would have left my father to die. That day, we had to transfer my father to another hospital with an ICU as he ended up in septic shock and kidney failure. How does it get this bad? Did they ignore the infection?

The next day in the other ICU, I put my father on life support. His wishes were to save his life. I gave permission for light sedation to intubate him but didn’t want my father on any heavy sedatives or any morphine. Unfortunately, my father could never wake up as they sedated him heavily and they would not listen to me when I, as his power of attorney said, “I want my dad off sedation and woken up as soon as possible.”

But they kept telling me, “You don’t want your dad to suffer, let him die.” I said, “Oh, my dad’s wishes are to have everything done and let him live and he wanted to prolong his life as miracles can happen.”

To make a long story short, they went behind our back. They pulled out the feeding tube, they stopped dialysis and stopped all the medication, but they put him on palliative care medicine and gave my father something called Midazolam and morphine.

He died soon after. They went behind my and my mother’s back. We were dad’s power of attorney. Is this not murder, assault, and battery?

The first hospital neglected us, not wanting to take dad to the bathroom as they didn’t want to break his back. My father was a healthy man otherwise. The media will not touch my story as I have an investigation ongoing. I feel my voice can’t be heard.

Power of attorney is a legal document. How can they do this?

Thank you. From, Angie”

Angie, I’m very sorry to hear about your dad’s situation and about your situation, what you and your mom are going through.

Now, the biggest challenge for families in intensive care is 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.

Unfortunately, this is exactly what you and your mom have been dealing with. You couldn’t read the narrative early enough and you couldn’t read what was happening. You couldn’t read in the first hospital that he needed to go to ICU and then when he went to ICU, you couldn’t read the narrative quick enough to see what was happening.

Now, you got to understand that the worst-case scenario for an ICU is that patients that may stay in ICU for an indefinite period of time with an uncertain outcome is actually the worst-case scenario for an ICU team. Your dad perfectly fitted that picture.

Now, by removing life support, without your consent, by giving him what they refer to as palliative medicine such as midazolam or morphine, and you are calling it here in your email you’re calling it murder, assault, and battery. Those are your words. Well, it could be that, it could be euthanasia. Euthanasia is the hastening of death with medicine, for example, and euthanasia is also illegal.

Now, I have worked in critical care nursing for nearly 25 years in three different countries where I worked as a nurse manager for over 5 years. I’ve been consulting and advocating for families in intensive care since 2013 here at intensivecarehotline.com.

I can confidently and without any hint of exaggeration say that we have saved many lives with our consulting and advocacy. You can verify that on our testimonial section at intensivecarehotline.com. You can also verify on our podcast section at intensivecarehotline.com where we have interviewed our clients or some of our clients who verify the work that we’ve done.

Now, I argue, and I know it’s too late now, but I argue, Angie, that if you had come to me during that period, your dad would have taken a different trajectory of his recovery because again, I’m confidently saying we would have saved his life, we would have given him the option to continue treatment.

Now, there’s no guarantee that he would have survived, but he would have had the best shot possible because that’s what we do with our consulting and advocacy. We know all about patient and family rights in intensive care, but we also know about treatment in ICU. So, they haven’t even told you what options you had for treatment. They haven’t even told you what options you have for treatment, and that’s exactly what’s happening here.

The media may not touch your story because they don’t understand intensive care. Now, what we can do for you in a situation like that, we can look at the medical records and find out where the negligence is.

If they’ve moved into palliative care without your consent, behind your back, that is potentially murder, assault, and battery, that is potentially euthanasia, but we need to find the evidence. We can’t speculate here but unfortunately, this is what happens in ICU. If you are not getting professional advocacy and consulting, that is, unfortunately, what’s happening in many of those situations.

I encourage you to reach out to us at intensivecarehotline.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website or send us an email to [email protected] and then we can help you with moving your dad’s case forward, getting justice for your dad.

Now, because we get so many questions from families in intensive care, that’s why we created a membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care. You can become a member if you go to intensivecarehotline.com, if you click on the membership link or if you going 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. In the membership, you also have exclusive access to 21 e-books and 21 videos that I have personally written and recorded and the access to me and my team and the videos and the e-books will help you to make informed decisions, have peace of mind control, power, and influence, making sure your loved one gets best care and treatment and so that you can influence decision making fast as well.

Now, I also do one-on-one consulting and advocacy over the phone, Zoom Skype, WhatsApp, whichever medium works best for you. I talk to you and your families directly. I handhold you through this once in a lifetime situation that you can’t afford to get wrong. I also talk to doctors and nurses directly. I ask all the questions that you haven’t even considered asking when your loved one is critically ill in intensive care. I also represent you in family meetings with intensive care teams.

We also do medical record reviews in real time so that you can get a second opinion in real time. We also review medical records after intensive care in case you have unanswered questions, if you need closure, or if you are suspecting medical negligence.

All of that, you get at intensivecarehotline.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website or send us an email to [email protected] with your questions.

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 from this video.

I also do a weekly YouTube live where I answer your questions live on a show. You will get notification for the YouTube live if you are a subscriber to my YouTube channel or if you are a subscriber to our email newsletter at intensivecarehotline.com.

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.