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

Yesterday, I published a video with the title, “My Dad is Only Day 6 on the Ventilator in ICU and We are Already Asked to Move Him to LTAC! Please Help!” You can check out this video from yesterday if you click on the link below this video.

Lo and behold, I then had a comment on that video from Tony who says, 

“I’m in the U.S. My daughter is Day 6 on the ventilator. I was approached about moving her to LTAC. My daughter is only 33 years of age, she is disabled and nonverbal. I made some inquiries; I actually spoke to the facility called Select. Based on their answers, it’s a hard no moving her to LTAC. Absolutely not.”

Well, again this is a video for our U.S. audience and as you would have heard me talk about before, in the U.S., many patients in ICU that supposedly, and I say, “supposedly” can’t be weaned off the ventilator are being asked to have a tracheostomy, a PEG tube/Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy and then move on to LTAC. LTAC stands for long-term acute care hospital or long-term acute care facility.

From my extensive experience, they are a disaster area. They put on their websites that they are specialized in weaning patients off the ventilator and the tracheostomy. From my, again, extensive experience, it’s anything but patients often go from bad to worse. I’ve made client interviews on our podcast where clients share the experience about LTAC. We have reviewed medical records of LTACs for over a decade here at intensivecarehotline.com and it just doesn’t leave a good vibe. 

Patients go from ICU level care where they have ICU nurses, ICU doctors, respiratory therapists to LTAC where they have none of those things, and yet LTACs are claiming they’re specializing in weaning patients off the ventilator. Like I said, have a look at the reviews of LTACs online and see what families or even patients are saying and that will speak for itself.

So, what’s the remedy here? How should Tony approach this situation by saying, “Well, I’m not having my 33-year-old daughter who’s also disabled and nonverbal go to LTAC.”

Well, here’s how you need to approach it. First thing, when you have a loved one critically ill in intensive care, you need to start doing your research from Day 1. You and your family are in a once in a lifetime situation that you simply can’t afford to get wrong.

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. That’s exactly what Tony is dealing with here. At least, she can sense that going to LTAC would be a really, really bad move. What else do you need to do? 

Well, before you consider a tracheostomy in ICU for your loved one, which may be the right thing to do in certain situations, I’m not opposed to a tracheostomy, right patient, right time. There’s nothing wrong with the tracheostomy, however, before you are considering giving consent to a tracheostomy, you need to ask the following question. Has the intensive care team done everything beyond the shadow of a doubt to wean your critically loved one off the ventilator and the breathing tube? And have they done everything beyond the shadow of a doubt to avoid the tracheostomy? You can only really answer that question by having a second opinion.

Now, I’ve written an article and made a video about, “How to Wean a Critically Ill Patient Off the Breathing Tube and the Ventilator?”, follows a step-by-step guide. Obviously, making a video like today or making a video like how to wean a critically ill patient off the breathing tube and the ventilator comes from decades of experience. 

I worked in critical care for nearly 25 years in three different countries where I worked as a nurse manager for over 5 years and where I’ve been consulting and advocating for families in intensive care since 2013 here at intensivecarehotline.com. I can confidently say that we have saved many lives with our consulting and advocacy. You can verify that by reading our testimonials on our testimonial section at intensivecarehotline.com or you can go to our podcast section at intensivecarehotline.com and you can listen to some client interviews, and they vouch for the work we’ve done. 

You can even see a former patient talk on one of my podcasts where we clearly saved his life with our consulting and advocacy. So, I can really only speak freely about these topics because I’ve been there done that, have looked after probably thousands of critically ill patients and their families in intensive care. I understand the area inside out; therefore, I can verify with you whether the intensive care team is doing everything beyond the shadow of a doubt to wean your critically ill loved one off the ventilator and the breathing tube and avoid the tracheostomy to begin with, because they often want to push patients out to LTAC, to free up their beds, save money. It’s not actually patient and family centered.

Also, if you’re watching this and your loved one already has a tracheostomy and ICU wants to push you out to LTAC, there’s no need to panic. You can always stay in ICU. You just got to put the right steps in place i.e. no one can force you to send your loved one out of ICU with a ventilator and the tracheostomy, no one.  We’ve shown that time and time again that with our consulting and advocacy, patients and families get the care and treatment at the place of their choosing. We’ve also helped many families to go from LTAC back to ICU. We’ve helped so many families avoiding LTAC in the first place. We’ve helped families moving their loved one to another hospital if the signs are there, that there would be better treatment and care offered in other hospital. So, we’ve done all of that as part of our consulting and advocacy. 

But the bottom line is once you’re doing a little bit of digging with LTAC, you will very quickly see that it’s a disaster area and that your loved one going to LTAC is something you need to avoid at all costs. I’ve also made a video a few weeks ago. The title was, “10 Reasons Why LTAC in the United States are a Scam,” and I’m not making any apologies for that title because that’s what most LTACs are.

So, because we are helping so many families in intensive care all around the world, that’s why we created a membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care, and you can become a member if you are going to intensivecarehotline.com if you click on the membership link there or if 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. In the membership, you also have exclusive access to 21 eBooks and 21 videos that I have personally written and recorded. All those resources, access to me and my team, and the eBooks and videos will make sure you make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power and influence, making sure your loved one gets best care and treatment.

I also do one-on-one consulting and advocacy over the phone, Zoom, WhatsApp, Skype, whichever medium works best for you. I talk to you and your families directly. I talk to doctors and nurses directly. I handhold you through this once in a lifetime experience that you can’t afford to get wrong. When I talk to doctors and nurses directly, I ask all the questions that you haven’t even considered asking but must be asked when you have a loved one critically ill in intensive care.

I also represent you in family meetings with intensive care teams.

We also do medical record reviews in intensive care 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 suspecting medical negligence.

Once again, all of that is designed to make sure you make informed decisions, you have peace of mind, control, power, and influence, making sure your loved one gets best care and treatment. Don’t leave it until it’s too late because many families leave getting help until it’s too late. They trust blindly. You can’t unfortunately trust blindly, and you need to get a second opinion. 

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

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 do you want to see next, what questions and insights you have from these videos, and share the video with your friends and families.

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

If you want your video read out quickly and your question answered quickly here on YouTube, I can do that. Because I have so many videos, so many emails still sitting in my inbox from last year that I haven’t even gone come around to it. If you want yours answered quickly, leave a donation here on the super chat button on YouTube or leave a small donation anyway to support our work so that we can make as many videos for families in intensive care as possible, and then I will read out your email in the next couple of days.

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.

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