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

So today, I want to give you a quick tip about the client that we’re currently working with who has their 93-year-old mother in intensive care, intubated on a ventilator with a breathing tube. The client has been telling us that the mother has been passing some spontaneous breathing trials on CPAP and pressure support, but they were putting her back in a controlled mode overnight and they were adamant that they do a tracheostomy and then send her to LTAC (Long term Acute Care).

Obviously, this is a client based in the US, and we were saying, “Well, why can’t they continue the spontaneous breathing trial on a day-by-day basis? Start physical therapy, start moving her, start mobilizing her.” He said he has been made with much resistance and they were saying his mother is too old and she should either have a tracheostomy and go to LTAC or should die and have a palliative care one-way extubation and let her die and that’s the end of that. Obviously, the client can think for himself. He said, “No, that’s not what my mother wants and that’s not what I want. We should keep trying extubating her.”

I’ve been talking to the doctors a couple of times. They’re now asking them for their rationale and there was no rationale and now they’re at least trying to continue the spontaneous breathing trials.

Here is another word of warning in a situation like that. There has been a documentary on CBC last year, and I will post a link below this link, that in some hospitals, when patients are being moved to palliative care, some health insurances will actually pay the hospital a bonus for palliating a client, for basically letting a patient die and they don’t even show up in the mortality rate then making the numbers really look good.

Now, in my mind, that is outrageous. Like I said, I will post a link to the documentary below this video so that you can see evidence of what I’m saying here. But the bottom line is this, you should never stop advocating for your loved one in intensive care. Just in the last couple of days, I posted some videos here about survival stories from ICU patients and their families. You should never give up hope and you should be absolutely advocating for what you want, you should get a second opinion and you should let me talk to the doctors and nurses directly. You should let us review medical records so we can give you the second opinion. We can break it all down for you, so you don’t have to put up with the “one size fits all” approach from many ICUs especially in the US.

It’s just a whole lot of crap, excuse my language, but that’s just the reality. By you standing up, you will make some headways, but you need to start standing up and you need to start advocating because otherwise, they will do whatever they want.

So that is my quick tip for today.

Always get a second opinion and always get someone to advocate. Always get a clinician like myself to talk to doctors and nurses directly, and let me ask all the questions that you haven’t even considered asking but must be asked in a situation like that to make sure your loved one gets best care and treatment and that’s the best chance of survival.

Now, I have worked in critical care 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.

That’s why we get so many emails almost every day with questions and we can barely keep up answering the questions. There are some questions still sitting in my email inbox from October last year and we can barely keep up, but we’re answering as many as we can. But that’s why we also created a membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care here at intensivecarehotline.com and you can become a member if you click on the membership link at intensivecarehotline.com or if you go to intensivecaresupport.org directly. 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.

In the membership, you also have access to 21 exclusive eBooks and 21 exclusive videos that I’ve personally written and recorded, making sure that you can manage intensive care teams, making sure you make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence, making sure your loved one gets best care and treatment because those videos and eBooks will help you steer the incredibly difficult landscape that is intensive care.

I also offer one-on-one consulting and 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. Once again, I make sure you make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence, making sure your loved one gets best care and treatment. When I talk to doctors and nurses directly, I ask all the questions that you haven’t even considered asking but must be asked.

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.

I also represent you in family meetings with intensive care teams. Once again, making sure you 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 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.

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 support@intensivecarehotline.com.

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, share this video with your friends and families, and comment below what you want to see next, what questions and insights you have.

I also do a weekly YouTube live where I answer your questions live on the show and you get notification once you are a subscriber here at my YouTube channel or a subscriber on my website 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.

 

Watch this for further information: https://rumble.com/v2wtd84-how-to-avoid-the-trap-of-the-medical-industrial-complex.html

[It’s relevant from 1 hour and 19 minutes until the end, highly relevant for health care in the US. Patients who die in hospice care don’t count in the mortality rate for the hospitals, making the numbers look good, unbelievable!]