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YOUR INTENSIVE CARE HOTLINE - Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: My Brother Had a Cardiac Arrest with Loss of Oxygen to the Brain, He Hasn’t Woken Up for 14 Days, Help!

/ Patrik Hutzel - Critical Care Nurse Consultant / No Comments

Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: My Brother Had a Cardiac Arrest with Loss of Oxygen to the Brain, He Hasn’t Woken Up for 14 Days, Help!

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

Today, I have an email from Sylvia who says,

“Hi Patrik,

My brother recently had a massive accident in Tennessee on the 3rd of July. He went into the trauma hospital followed by cardiac arrest which led to a loss of oxygen supply to his brain. His EEG (Electroencephalography), MRI, and CT scan of the brain show no signs of major injury, but it’s been 14 days since my brother hasn’t responded. He’s currently in ICU. The doctors believe there must be an anoxic brain injury. I’m terrified though. We all live in India and can’t get there. It’s been a very difficult situation. I really have hope he will respond but would take some time for recovery. Can you please share your insights?”

Thank you, Sylvia, for sharing your brother’s situation.

Well, it all comes down to what the MRI (Magnetic resonance Imaging) and the CT (Computed Tomography) scan show of his brain. If there’s no injury, then there’s no injury, then he will just need time to wake up. A lot of patients in intensive care without a brain injury that have been in an induced coma take their time to wake up. It might take days, sometimes weeks, to wake up, even without a brain injury.

It also depends on what sedatives and opiates he’s on. Are they long-acting? Are they short-acting? Propofol is short-acting. Midazolam/Versed is long-acting. Is he getting a lot of opiates that will also temper him waking up? Has he been paralyzed like with medications that will also delay him waking up?

Also, when someone is critically ill, waking up takes time, it doesn’t happen in a heartbeat. Waking up after an induced coma is like switching on a light with a dimmer, not like switching on a light with a switch; it can take time. When someone is critically ill, their body just shuts down and they simply need time to recover. It’s such a major insult to the body that you just simply need to give your brother time with much good medical and nursing care.  Hopefully he will come out of that. You shouldn’t give up. It’s only been 14 days, which also is not a long time. Fourteen days in ICU is not a long time. So, you got to be patient and I know what sounds like an eternity to you is just not a long time here.

It also would help if you give us access to the medical records or if we can talk to the doctors and nurses directly because we will ask all the questions that you haven’t even considered asking, any conversation with the doctors and nurses. We also often get more information, get different information that you haven’t simply been able to extract from them because after having worked in intensive care for nearly 25 years in three different countries where I also worked as a nurse manager for over 5 years, I know what I’m looking for. I know what I’ve been asked, what I’m asking. I’ve looked after thousands of critically ill patients and their families in intensive care, and I’ve been consulting and advocating for families in intensive care since 2013 here at intensivecarehotline.com.

You can look up our testimonials in our testimonial section. You can also look up our podcasts on our podcast section with client interviews. What they say, we have undoubtedly saved many lives with our consulting and advocacy.

That’s also why we created a membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care that you can become a member of when you go to intensivecarehotline.com if you click on the membership link 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 access to exclusive content such as 21 eBooks and 21 videos that I have personally written and recorded for you, for our members, so that you can make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power and influence when your loved one is in intensive care, making sure your loved one gets best care and treatment.

I also offer one-on-one consulting and advocacy over the phone, Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp, whichever meeting works best for you. I talk to you and your families directly. I also talk to doctors and nurses directly. Once again, I ask all the questions to the doctors and nurses that you haven’t even considered asking from all my experience, making sure that you make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence, making sure your loved one gets best care and treatment. You will see that the dynamics will change in your favor once you get an advocate involved.

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

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 us an email to support@intensivecarehotline.com 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, 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 get notification for the show once you subscribe to my YouTube channel.

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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