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

A few days ago, I put out a video with the title, “My dad’s in ICU with a weak heart. The ICU team says DNR (do not resuscitate) to stop his pain and suffering, but we want CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation). Help.” That’s a video I put out a few days ago.

Interestingly enough, I had a great response from a viewer who comments on the video, it’s from Mindy and Mindy says,

“Hi Patrik,

Thanks for this great video. My mom had all the odds against her. She had severe COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), emphysema, uncontrolled diabetes, undiagnosed sleep apnea, history of heart disease as a child. Then, got COVID when the delta variant was out in July 2021. All she had was a runny nose and watery eyes for the first two days, got tested just to make sure she didn’t have COVID.

She had only left the house two times in two years and was working from home due to her being high risk. She ended up going into acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

My dad called 911. She was taken to the ER two minutes away from her house, one of the best hospitals in town, where she went into cardiac arrest, I’m assuming due to pulmonary hypertension, and her severe double COVID pneumonia. She was very hypoxic and hypercapnic. Hypercapnic means high CO2 (carbon dioxide).

The doctors tried to tell us she wouldn’t make it, even stating that even if they got her heartbeat back, she would not recover that she was simply too sick. She was maxed out on vasopressor, and I believe even on ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) at some point. She was intubated as well.

Two days later, she was weaned off. Due to some other hospital related issues, she had a longer stay, but long story short, she made it and is still here today. She’s now in ICU again, after being on LTAC (Long-Term Acute Care) and being neglected, she’s recovering again.

Hopefully, she pulls through, and all goes well this time around.

From, Mindy.”

Well, Mindy, thank you so much for sharing this because I think this is a wonderful story of survival. It’s another story of that you need to think for yourself and that you can’t just take the doom and gloom and the negativity for an answer because you can think for yourself, and you can do your own research and you can follow your own gut instinct. Obviously, you and your family thought that it would be a good idea to keep going with your mom. You still think it’s a good idea and that’s fantastic.

It just goes to show that what we’ve been saying all the way along that approximately, depending on which statistic you trust, 80 to 90%, or closer to 90% of intensive care patients actually survive. So, the odds are in your loved one’s favor.

I can tell you from experience, this lady here went into ARDS has a very high mortality attached to it, especially during COVID. It had a high mortality. Obviously, Mindy’s mother was on ECMO, which is one of the highest forms of life support there is because it’s basically a bypass machine. So, she’s done really, really well.

Similar to the video that I put out a couple of days ago, families are allowed to make their own decisions and make their own choice that they do want to have CPR and that they do want to give their loved ones a real chance, and that’s only reasonable. So, thank you so much, Mindy, once again for sharing this survival story.

Because we get so many emails and questions for families in intensive care, that’s why we created a membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care at intensivecarehotline.com. If you click on the membership link, you can become a member there or if you go to intensivecaresupport.org directly and become a member there. In the membership, 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 have worked in critical care for nearly 25 years in three different countries where I also worked as a nurse manager for over 5 years. I’ve been consulting and advocating for families in intensive care all around the world since 2013 here at intensivecarehotline.com. We’ve been saving lives. You can have a look at our testimonial section. You can have a look at our podcast where we have client interviews to verify what I’m saying.

That’s also why I offer one-on-one consulting advocacy over the phone, Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp, whichever medium works best for you. I talk to you and your families directly. I talk to doctors and nurses directly. I ask all the questions to the doctors and nurses that must be asked that you haven’t even considered asking so that you can make informed decisions, you have peace of mind, control, power, and influence.

I represent you in family meetings with intensive care team so that you have a strong advocate there, once again, so that you can make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence, making sure your loved one gets best care and treatment.

We also offer medical record reviews in real time. We also offer medical record 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.

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.

Thank you so much for watching.

This is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com and I’ll talk to you in a few days and share the video with your friends and families.

I also do a YouTube live once a week. Once you’re a subscriber, you’ll get a notification for that.

Take care.