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

So, Daniel sent me an email and says, “My concern is that there’s potentially medical malpractice. My mother was placed on a ventilator after supposedly a cardiac arrest. She was taken off the ventilator and placed back on it to perform some procedures. Now, the next step is to place a tracheostomy, but blood platelets are very low 10 instead of 200,000. What should we be doing?” Now, Daniel, the first thing is if you are concerned about medical malpractice, you always need to get a second opinion, and I’m sure you’re halfway there by just reading and watching our stuff online.

You should reach out to us directly with a phone call on our website at intensivecarehotline.com so that we can advise what the next steps are because otherwise you’d be flying blind and otherwise, you haven’t got a second opinion. You need to have some neutral oversight here so that you can feel confident they’re doing everything they can.

Now, I can’t comment on what happened in terms of medical malpractice. If she had a cardiac arrest and she had CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation), there’s a very high chance she had to go on a ventilator. But it also sounds to me like she had come off it and they need to be going back on it again.

But you haven’t shared why to perform some procedures that could be anything from, she might have needed an angiogram or an angioplasty after the cardiac arrest. She might have needed cardiac surgery, you haven’t specified. She might have needed a bronchoscopy. She might have needed a TOE, a Transesophageal Echocardiogram, you haven’t shared any of it. You haven’t shared whether your mom potentially had a hypoxic brain injury after the cardiac arrest.

So, that’s why you need a second opinion because you think there has been medical malpractice but because you haven’t gone into detail, I would imagine that you don’t know what you don’t know, which is the biggest challenge for families in intensive care. 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. They don’t know how to manage doctors and nurses in intensive care. It looks to me like this is exactly what you’re dealing with.

Now, in terms of two more issues you’ve pointed out. Now, the next step is a tracheostomy, is it? The goal in ICU should always be to take a patient off the ventilator and the breathing tube and avoid the tracheostomy, that should always be the goal.

I’ve made countless of videos and blog posts about this. One blog post would be, “How to wean a critically ill patient of the ventilator and the breathing tube?” You can look at that, I’ll link towards that below this video. Also, another blog post that I’ve made is, “How long can a breathing tube stay in?” The tracheostomy should never be the goal. The goal is to avoid a tracheostomy.

Now, if platelets are as low as you say they are with 10 instead of 200,000, they won’t be able to do a tracheostomy anyway because she’s at risk of bleeding as tracheostomy is a surgical procedure, and if she has a platelet count of 10, she’s at risk of bleeding.

Now, they could potentially counteract that by giving a platelet transfusion or by giving FFPs (Fresh Frozen Plasma Transfusion), and that could counteract that. Then, they might be able to do tracheostomy if a tracheostomy is the right thing to do. So, I hope that helps and answers your question, Daniel.

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 simply send us an email to [email protected] with your questions.

Now, have a look at our membership for families in intensive care at intensivecaresupport.org. There, you have access to me and my team, 24 hours a day, in a membership area and via email and we answer all questions intensive care related.

I also offer one-on-one consulting and advocacy over the phone, via Skype, via WhatsApp, Zoom, whichever medium works best for you. I talk to doctors and nurses directly with you and I answer all the questions. I ask all the questions that you haven’t even considered asking. I also represent you in family meetings. Again, if you need a second opinion, if you need someone that speaks the medical language in intensive care inside out, you’ve come to the right place. So, please contact us for that as well.

We also offer medical record reviews in real time for a second opinion. We also offer medical record reviews after intensive care if you have unanswered questions, if you need closure, or if you’re simply suspecting medical negligence.

Now, if you are finding my videos valuable, please subscribe to my YouTube channel, click the like button, click the notification bell, share the video with your friends and families, and comment below what you want to see next or what questions and insights you have from this video.

Thanks for watching.

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

Take care for now.

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