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

So today I was talking to a client who has his 84-year-old father in intensive care, after a cardiac arrest, a couple of weeks ago. Initially, the MRI scan showed there’s no brain injury cause apparently that was prolonged CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation). Eventually, apparently, he wasn’t breaking up. Then the MRI scan showed that there is an anoxic brain injury. And now obviously they’re telling him that his father won’t wake up. If he does survive, he won’t have any quality of life.

And he’s also suffering from pneumonia and he’s basically asking, what should he be doing? The intensive care team is very pushy towards the end of life. Should he just give in, or should he pursue to buy his father time so he can potentially wake up and improve? Those are very difficult situations. But here is my recommendation in a situation like that is always – you should make decisions today that you won’t regret in 12-months-time and you should base those decisions on your beliefs, on your culture, on your spiritual beliefs, religious beliefs, whatever floats your boat so to speak. Do be by your ethics, by your morals, by your values. You should be guided by that and not by anything else. And, we are not here to judge anyone, we are here to help people and you need to base your decisions, based on your own moral and ethical compass, and nothing else. So don’t be pushed, make decisions today that you won’t regret in 12 months’ time.

Now, the reality is, if you’re pushing your family member towards the end of life and they die, they go to hospice, so they go to palliative care, they will be dead, and as far as we know, there’s no return from that. So, if you give your father a chance to improve, you will only find out over time.

Now, our client’s father has been ventilated for about seven days now. And he’s thinking, should he push for a tracheostomy so that he can buy his father time? Well, that is one way to deal with the situation. A tracheostomy would buy your father time if he’s not waking up and if he can’t come off the ventilator and the breathing tube. Will he improve? Nobody knows. Right. It’s only been seven days, not a long time, at all. And only time will tell where this is going.

There’s plenty of time to talk about the end of life, plenty of time. What’s the hurry? What’s the rush? Is your father suffering? If he’s not suffering, you should probably give him a chance. You never know, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Keep that in mind.

So that is my quick tip for today.

If you have a loved one in intensive care, we actually have a membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care where we answer your questions. You can get access to our membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care at intensivecarehotline.com by clicking on the membership link or by going to intensivecaresupport.org directly.

Also, 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. We also have videos and eBooks in the membership that are only accessible to members.

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

I also represent you in family meetings with intensive care teams so that you don’t get walked all over in family meetings. I’ve been to hundreds of them. And unless you know what to say, how to say it, when to say it, you will draw the short straw in those meetings because the intensive care teams know what they say, when to say it, how to say it. They also know what not to say. So, by you going into a family meeting without an advocate is sheer insanity.

So have clinical representation in those family meetings, so you get what you want, so that you can make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power and influence. If you’ve been in one of those meetings without clinical representation, you know exactly what I’m talking about, but you should never have gone there without representation.

Now, if you want the medical record review in real time, we give you a medical record review in real time so that you once again make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power and influence. We also do medical record reviews after intensive care. If you have unanswered questions, if you need closure or if you are simply suspecting medical negligence.

Also, 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.

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.