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

Today, I’ve got an email from Steven who says, 

“Hi Patrik,

My sister is 80 years of age. She’s in intensive care with the pneumonia and they want to palliate her after only 3 days in ICU and it seems wrong. Can you help?” Well, Steven, I agree with you wholeheartedly that after three days in ICU, no one should be moved to palliative care.

It doesn’t sound to me like your sister even had a fair chance to fight the pneumonia. It also doesn’t sound to me like your sister has been spoken to in terms of what she wants. It also sounds to me like your family has been spoken to in terms of what they want. It sounds to me like ICU seems to coerce you.

I’m not surprised knowing that you are in the U.K. There are horror stories coming from the U.K., and the NHS and we’ve had many clients over the years where the NHS is literally trying to kill people and I’m not making any excuses saying that because we’ve been dealing with it firsthand here at intensivecarehotline.com. I think it is atrocious and people need to speak up in the U.K. in ICU doctors and nurses as well for what is happening there.

But irregardless of that, if you want to save your sister from going into palliative care after only three days in ICU, you should get a second opinion as a matter of urgency. We can look at the medical records and see whether they’re doing all the right things or whether they just want to wind down treatment and let her die. That seems very wrong.

Also, you have to distinguish between what is a “real end of life” situation and a “perceived end of life” situation. I have written about this extensively and made videos about it that a real end of life situation, for example, is that when someone is in intensive care, that no fancy treatment, no fancy medications, no surgery, no medications, no equipment can save someone’s life. That is a real end of life situation.

Now, if your sister has pneumonia and is in ICU, there’s nothing else and ICU wants to move her to palliative care and let her die. Well, that is a perceived end of life situation because the pneumonia can be cured with the right efforts.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the ICU told you or your sister and your sister’s family or other family, “Oh, if she will survive, she’s not going to have any quality of life.” Well, what does that even mean quality of life? Quality of life is subjective. It’s not up to intensive care teams to decide what’s going to happen after ICU survival. ICUs are there to treat critical illness, acute critical illness and then families and patients can decide what they want from there.

So, I go as far as that, if your sister is being moved to palliative care, I go as far as that could be perceived as euthanasia because if she’s moved to palliative care, has the ventilator removed and potentially ends up with benzodiazepine drips and opiate drips, that could hasten death.

When you look up the definition in Wikipedia or online, what is the definition of euthanasia? It is to hasten death. Also, euthanasia in the U.K. and in most other Western countries is illegal. So, they are potentially conducting something illegal here that you can stop with our consulting and advocacy full stop and save many lives as part of our consulting and advocacy.

You can verify that as part of when you go to intensivecarehotline.com and you look at our testimonial section and see what our clients say. We’ve also done some client interviews on our podcast section which you can look up at intensivecarehotline.com and see what our clients say there.

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. Like I said, we’ve been consulting and advocating for families in intensive care since 2013 here at intensivecarehotline.com. Like I said, we’ve been saving many lives since then and that is documented on our testimony section and on our podcast section at intensivecarehotline.com. 

When I worked in ICU hands on, I always felt that many, many patients are being moved to palliative care prematurely, too early, which has led me to this work because I believe in the advocacy for patients and for families in intensive care. I am very pro-life, and I am a big believer that patients and families need to make their own decisions that is not driven by ICU politics, by ICU finances, by ICU bed management, and so forth.

That is also why we created a membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care. You can become a member if you go to intensivecarehotline.com if you click on the membership link or 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 access to exclusive access to 21 e-books and 21 videos that I have personally written and recorded and all of those resources, whether it’s access to me and my team and whether it’s access to those e-books and videos will help 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 for families in intensive care over the phone, Zoom, WhatsApp, Skype, whichever medium works best for you. I talk to you and your families directly and 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. I handhold you through this once in a life lifetime situation that you can’t afford to get wrong. I also talk to doctors and nurses directly with you and I’m asking all the questions to the doctors and nurses 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 real time so that you can get that crucial 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 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 or what questions and insights you have from this video, share this video with your friends and families.

I also do a weekly YouTube live where I answer your questions live on the show. You can interact with me directly there and you will get notification for the 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 answered quickly here, make a small donation to our super chat button here and I will make your video and answer your questions very quickly. I’ve got emails sitting there from last year that I’m still reading out here. If you want yours read out quickly, leave a small donation or you can leave a small donation regardless, it helps us to do the work that we are doing, and the more families we can help in intensive care all around the world by putting out these videos.

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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