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If you want to know what to do if an intensive care team wants to withdraw life support on your loved one without your consent, stay tuned. I’ve got news for you.

My name is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com and I have another quick tip for families in intensive care.

So today, I have an email from Wendy, who says,

“Hi Patrik,

My father is in intensive care with pneumonia. They’re wanting to withdraw life support tomorrow, because apparently, he’s not a candidate for a tracheostomy. All his vitals are stable, but he’s not alert enough to protect his own airway. I have sent you pictures of the ventilator settings. Can you help?”

Of course, we can help Wendy because we have turned many of these situations around because intensive care is not a lawless environment. I mean by that is, withdrawing life support without patient or family consent could be perceived as murder. Intensive care teams are notoriously good at pretending they can do whatever they want, which is absolutely not the case.
They have to operate within guidelines, laws, policies, and procedures.

Having worked in hospitals for a long time, everything in a hospital happens with a policy. Nothing happens without a policy. Mopping the floor, washing the window, giving medications, everything has a policy. So, withdrawing life support definitely has a policy, and that policy will say that it can’t be done without patient or family consent. 

What are your courses of action here? First of all, you need to get a second opinion. You need to get access to the medical records. You need to ask them for time. You need to ask for time to get a second opinion, get access to the medical records. If they’re not giving you access to the medical records, you already know you’ve got a case, because you already know they have something to hide. 

What we are doing in these situations is obviously referring back to hospital policies. We’re asking for access to them. We’re looking at the state laws, the national laws about withdrawal of life support, once again, that can’t be done without patient or family consent because that could be perceived as murder and that is simply a crime.

Therefore, whilst you think you’re running out of time, you absolutely need to put the pressure back on. You let either me talk to the doctors and nurses directly. We’ve turned many of those situations around just by talking to them and reminding them, “Hey, we could take you to court.” Because if you’re not doing that, they think they can get away with it. Unfortunately, they do get away with this sort of behavior very often because they need beds, they need staff, they need resources, and they need equipment. We know how ICUs are run. But the bottom line is, you can turn this situation around and we can help you there very fast because we’ve done it many, many times.

The other thing that you need to do is, you need to find out, is this a real or a perceived end of life situation? What’s the difference? I’m glad you’ve asked. A real end of life situation is that nothing will save your dad’s life. No medication, no surgery, no treatment, no equipment, no nothing will save your dad’s life, and his death is imminent. A perceived end of life situation is, it just a perception that if we do remove life support, your dad’s going to die. That might be the case, but that’s a perception. 

So, I’ve seen the ventilator settings, he’s on minimal settings, so therefore, there’s absolutely a case for a tracheostomy. There’s also a case for potentially giving him a few more days and extubating him to him breathing spontaneously. Your notion about that he doesn’t want to die, and that there’s no need for him dying is absolutely accurate. Therefore, you need to put the pressure back on, you need to look at the state laws, at the hospital policies, and we can help you with all of that. That’s part of what we do here at intensivecarehotline.com and that we can help you to turn this situation around, and I’m very positive we can.

I have worked in critical care nursing for 25 years in 3 different countries, where I worked as a nurse manager for over 5 years in intensive care. I’ve been consulting and advocating for families in intensive care since 2013 here at intensivecarehotline.com. I can very, very confidently say that we have saved many lives, and we have saved many lives in similar situations with your situation, Wendy, just simply with our advice, with our consulting and advocacy. Very simple. 

That being said, you can verify all of that on our testimonial section at intensivecarehotline.com and you can verify it on our intensivecarehotline.com podcast section, where we’ve interviewed clients that were exactly in a similar situation than you are, Wendy, and we’ve turned it around in no time.

We have helped hundreds and hundreds of members and clients over the years here at intensivecarehotline.com to improve their lives instantly, making sure our clients can make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence, making sure their loved one gets best care and treatment always.

That’s why I do one-on-one consulting and advocacy over the phone, Zoom, WhatsApp, Skype, whichever medium works best for you. I talk to you and your families directly. I handhold you through this once in a lifetime situation that you simply cannot afford to get wrong. I also I talk to doctor and nurses directly. When I talk to doctors and nurses directly with you or on your behalf, I ask all the questions 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. I’ve been in family meetings where I question the intensive care teams, and I question successfully intensive care teams wanting to withdraw life support without family or patient consent. That is murder, it’s as simple as that. You just got to call it out. Call them out for it to stop them from doing that.

We also do medical record reviews in real time. We also do medical record reviews so that you can get a second opinion in real time. We also do medical record reviews after intensive care if you have unanswered questions, if you need closure, or if you are suspecting medical negligence.

We also have a membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care. You can become a member if you go to intensivecarehotline.com, 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, we answer all questions intensive care related. You also have exclusive access as a member to 21 eBooks and 21 videos that I’ve personally written and recorded that are only accessible to our members. All of that will help you to make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence, making sure your loved one gets best care and treatment always.

All of that you get at intensivecarehotline.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website or simply 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, and comment below what you want to see next, what questions and insights you have from this video.

I also do a weekly YouTube live where I answer your questions live on a show. You will get notification for the YouTube live if you’re a subscriber to my YouTube channel, or if you’re a subscriber to my intensivecarehotline.com email newsletter at intensivecarehotline.com. Share the video with your friends and families.

Thank you so much for watching.

This is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com and I’ll talk to you in a few days.

Take care for now.

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