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

So yesterday, I was on a call with a client, but also with a hospital CEO, and the ICU medical director. And the situation is a very complicated one where one of our client’s family members has been in ICU for the last two months. And early on in our client’s family members stay, the ICU was pretty much telling the family that tomorrow at three o’clock they will withdraw life support and their family member would die, and that it wouldn’t be, “in the family member’s best interest” to live because he wouldn’t have any quality of life and the family vehemently opposed that and they didn’t know how to, and that’s why they reached out to us. And of course, with our insider intensive care knowledge and being specialized on family and patient advocacy and consultancy in intensive care, we managed to turn the situation around for this family and their family member is still alive to this day.

And the ICU team at the time was telling the family that even if they’re not “pulling the plug”, and even if they’re not withdrawing treatment, their family member won’t survive anyway. But here we are two months later, and their family member is still alive. Yes, he’s life support dependent. He’s on ventilation with a tracheostomy. They did deny this client a tracheostomy in the beginning, but then again, through our advocacy and educating the family about the option of a tracheostomy, they asked for that and eventually got it.

But again, 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. Families in intensive care not knowing their rights could simply be a life-or-death matter like we have in this situation that I’m just explaining here.

So, where’s this patient in ICU at after two months in ICU? The ICU team is still adamant that the patient will not survive in the ICU. And after digging deeper yesterday, after asking all the clinical questions, it is like with any other ICU patient, their lives are at risk. But when you look at the research, approximately 90% of intensive care patients survive.

It also looks to us that there may have been some negligence by our client’s family member developing some Stage 3, potentially Stage 4 pressure sores in ICU, which is potentially a negligent act. Pressure sore in ICU, especially Stage 3 and Stage 4, that’s a non-event, that should never happen.

And that goes to show that once again, what I’ve been explaining here for many years at intensivecarehotline.com, that ICUs don’t have enough beds, they don’t have enough staff because one of the hospital CEO yesterday in the call was mumbling something around, “Yeah, but that’s just how it is.” Well, he didn’t say, “We don’t have enough staff”, but that’s what he meant. And that’s what’s happening. They want patients out as quickly as possible because they don’t have enough staff. And by withdrawing treatment without family consent or without patient consent, that’s how you can manage or potentially empty beds. It’s a terrible state of affairs in 2023 in ICU.

And even if this particular gentleman may not survive his ICU stay, the reality is the family wants to have a say. If it was palliative care or end of life, the family wants to have a say how that should happen. It’s not a matter of ICU saying, “Well, tomorrow at three o’clock we are going to withdraw life support”, and that’s like executing someone, and YouTube will probably demonetize me for this comment, but I don’t care because that is what’s really happening in this situation.

So, if you have a loved one in intensive care, you need to be one step ahead. You absolutely need to be one step ahead. And we can help you be one step ahead. We know what’s happening in intensive care. We can predict what’s happening next. We have seen the patterns. I have worked in intensive care for over 20 years in three different countries and out of those 20 years, I’ve worked as a nurse unit manager in intensive care for over five years. I know exactly what’s going on in those places. They’re highly political. It’s often not about patient care. It’s not about the best outcomes for patients. It’s often about politics and bed and money management and staff management as well.

Furthermore, the ICU team has not released medical records until yesterday, even though the family had asked for it and has a right to access medical records. It makes you wonder why they could not release medical records even though that’s a right of a family. We are seeing this that sometimes hospitals make it very difficult for families to access medical records. You got to ask the question why that is. I’ll leave the answer to you.

Now, if you have a loved one in intensive care, please contact us 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].

Also, 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.

Also, if you need a medical record review, please contact us as well. We review medical records for patients in intensive care in real time, and we also review medical records after intensive care. But we highly recommend that you access medical records in real time so we can give you that critical second opinion.

Now, subscribe to my YouTube   channel for regular updates for families in intensive care, share the video with your friends and families, click the like button, click the notification bell, 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’ll talk to you in a few days.

Take care.