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Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: My Dad’s in ICU Ventilated & Tracheostomy & They Don’t Care! Can He Go to Another ICU?

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

Today’s tip is again another question answered from one of our members. We have a membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care at intensivecarehotline.com. Just click on the membership link there, and you have access to our membership where 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. I also offer one on one consulting over the phone, Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp, whichever medium works best for you.

But without further ado, let’s go into our member’s question for today who says.

“Hi Patrik and Team,

My dad is doing a lot better in many ways, but his left middle finger can’t be safe.”

So just for some context, this is a lady who has her dad in ICU for many weeks on a ventilator with a tracheostomy. And we’ve been consulting with her, for a couple of months now and just helping her to steer the complex territory that is intensive care, making sure she can make informed decisions, have peace of mind control, power, and influence. So, she continues,

“We think they left the pulse oximeter on that finger as his edema was growing. And that’s why blood flow was cut off.”

And you’re probably right there by saying that if you don’t change the pulse oximeter regularly, patients can end up with a pressure sore and that can develop into a necrotic finger, which is what’s happened in your dad’s case.

“We need to get to a bigger and better ICU to have one procedure of the finger removal and reconstruction instead of two separate procedures, one for removal and one for reconstructions. But none of the bigger ICUs are accepting dad as a patient at present because they have no beds or “it’s not bad enough yet”. We are living a nightmare. Dad and my family cannot make any decisions, can’t decide what doctors or facilities to go to. We are at the complete mercy of a failing system that is about money and not about the patient. There is no way out when you are admitted to a hospital. They do whatever they want with you, including permanently maiming you.

They won’t even tell me the names of the doctors taking care of my dad, the days when the negligence occurred. Dad can’t see any of his normal doctors or go to a place he trusts. This hospital ICU does not do reconstructive surgery, so we should be able to transfer to a hospital that does.

Nope, they won’t accept him.

“What should I do? It seems like nobody cares.”

Well, that’s really, very sad to hear. And here is what I would do, and we’ve shown you that I would contact the hospital CEO as a matter of urgency if I was you. A hospital CEO, generally speaking, has to take care of complaints, and we have written many letters to hospital CEOs with good outcomes for clients because we know the system. What you might see as a system failure and you’re probably right, the system is a failure. There’s always a way forward. There is always a way forward. You just need to get, take the right angle.

We have helped so many clients in very similar situations. At this point in time, your next solution is to write a letter to the CEO to get a referral to another hospital and you will see that the doors will open. We have done that many times successfully and we obviously feel very sorry for your suffering.

And you mentioned in your email that you reached out to some people, and no one seems to care about your dad. It’s very sad to hear this, but I think it is really time to raise this matter with the hospital CEO, the Chief Executive Officer, of a hospital. They are the best people to oversee and manage the operations of the entire facility and they can’t really ignore the complaint of a patient or a family.

ICU can, they will try and ignore it, but the hospital CEO often will say, well, if there’s a complaint, I can’t ignore that, and I don’t want that to happen under my watch. You will be surprised.

So, coming back to the reconstructive surgery for your dad, given that you are wanting your dad in another bigger and better hospital to have your dad’s finger removed and reconstructed in one procedure, you have a very good reason to write to the hospital CEO to make this request possible. Also, if there is a referral from this particular hospital to another hospital and as soon as there’s a bed opening, they will transfer your dad.

Now you can’t give up just because the doors haven’t opened yet. Giving up is never an option here. You always have to keep knocking at their door because just as much as you have seen, they are saying the same things over and over again and they’re trying to be obstructive. You will need to say the same things over and over again in terms of what you want so they know you’re not letting lose.

And also, the ignorance they are displaying, they violate your legal rights. I mean, they have a duty of care to you and your dad. And you have the right to know the names of the doctors and staff attending to take care of him.

Now, furthermore, you should just get access to the medical records online, the names will be there. And the hospital staff must introduce themselves to the patient and to you before they do anything, otherwise just refuse.

And again, it’s best if we help you by writing a letter to the hospital CEO, you will see that things will change. Most of the time things do change because they are violating your rights.

So, I hope that helps, don’t give up. And as the next step, we’ll write a letter to the hospital CEO with a complaint, and you will see that things will change.

So that is my quick tip for today.

Now, if you have a loved one in intensive care and you want help from us, we have a membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care in our membership area, just go to intensivecarehotline.com, and click the membership link there. You can get access there or go to intensivecaresupport.org directly.

In the membership, you have access to me and my team 24 hours a day and we answer all questions intensive care related. I also offer one on one consulting and advocacy for families in intensive care over the phone, via Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp, whichever medium works best for you. And I will consult you there.

I also talk to doctors and nurses directly and ask all the questions that you haven’t even considered asking, but you must be asking in order to make informed decisions, get peace of mind, control, power, and influence. I also represent you in family meetings with intensive care teams so that you have a clinical advocate by your side that understands what’s happening in intensive care and that speaks the intensive care language in and out. And once again can make sure that you make informed decisions, get peace of mind, control, power, and influence so that the intensive care team can’t orchestrate those meetings in a way that they remain the upper hand because they will, if you don’t have someone by your side on your team who understands intensive care inside out.

When I talk to doctors and nurses, I set you up with questions, I will ask the questions you haven’t even considered asking. So that you make informed decisions, get peace of mind, control, power, and influence.

Now, we also offer medical record reviews in real time so that you can have 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 simply suspecting medical negligence.

Now, 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 the video with your friends and families, and 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.