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

So, today I have a question from Jeanette who asks,

“Hi Patrik,

My husband died in ICU, and he died when he was on BIPAP, and he aspirated bile from his stomach. I want to see if this is something that could have been prevented. My husband had right-sided weakness from a stroke, unable to use and the head gear from the BIPAP machine, he probably couldn’t remove it with his hand because he had the right-sided weakness. I feel that this was medical negligence. Can you shed some light on this?”

Well, Jeanette, thank you so much for writing in and I’m very sorry to hear about your husband’s passing.

Like I’ve been saying for many years, the biggest challenge for families in intensive care is simply that they don’t know what they don’t know. They don’t know what to look for. They don’t know what questions to ask. They don’t know their rights and they don’t know how to manage doctors and nurses in intensive care. It’s exactly what you were dealing with at the time because what families in intensive care also don’t realize is they don’t realize that when they have a loved one in intensive care, it’s a once in a lifetime situation that you can’t afford to get wrong. And unfortunately, Jeanette, you did get it wrong. That’s just neither here nor there, it just is.

We help so many families before this situation even occurs, so they know what to expect, they know what questions to ask, they know how to manage doctors and nurses in intensive care. Obviously, something you didn’t know at the time that there is even a way of managing them and unfortunately, this cost your husband’s life.

So, if someone is on BIPAP (Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure) with a stroke and they’re unable to move, unable to use left or right side and they’re on BIPAP, that is most of the time a no go because those patients have two massive issues that can be life-threatening, which certainly was the case in your husband’s situation. The first case is that like you’ve pointed out correctly, they are unable to remove the BIPAP mask, if need be, that’s one thing. The other thing with many stroke patients, not all but many, there is an inability to swallow. So, whilst he probably aspirated bile from his stomach content, it could have been as simple as that he aspirated his saliva. And because he couldn’t swallow the saliva, then went down the lungs instead of the stomach, and that often happens when people have a stroke. That’s often why some stroke patients end up with a tracheostomy to protect their airway. So, that is most likely what happened here.

Was it medical negligence? Look, there’s a high chance for that, but we would need to look at the medical records. I couldn’t tell you from here without looking at the medical records. The bottom line is this, for anyone watching this, you want to be two steps ahead, not two steps behind. Like is the case here with Jeanette, who now realizes there was help at hand but didn’t know.

People watch these videos, and they go like, “Oh yeah, nice video,” and they have a family member in intensive care, and they don’t take action, and then they’re coming back here to us and saying, “Oh, this happened and that happened. My loved one has passed away.” Unfortunately, it’s too late by then.

We have saved many, many lives with our consulting. You can verify that on our testimonial section and you can verify it on our podcast section where we interviewed many, many clients.

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. I’ve been consulting and advocating for families or in intensive care all around the world since 2013, for over 10 years now. Like I said, we have saved many lives with our one-on-one consulting and advocacy and guidance and hand holding when families have a loved one in intensive care. We always make sure that you can make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence, making sure your loved one gets best care and treatment.

So, Jeanette, coming back to your question, yes, it absolutely could have been prevented. I also believe that he may not have had a 1:1 nurse to patient ratio, which is also imperative in a situation like that, maybe then he could have been prevented. For example, also, if he had a nasogastric tube or a PEG (Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy) tube, did they check the residuals every four hours as it’s imperative, got to check whether food or water or anything is getting digested, because if it’s not getting digested and there’s overflow, that is a massive risk for aspiration, especially on BIPAP because we’ve got all the air and oxygen blowing into the stomach as well, so recipe for aspiration pneumonia. Other things that could have happened, maybe he needed TPN (Total Parenteral Nutrition) in order to not get any nutrition or fluids into his stomach and TPN is intravenous nutrition.

Again, there’s a lot that families in intensive care don’t know because they haven’t done the research. Intensive care is such a highly specialized area, that if you’re not doing your research, you’ll be fighting up your battle. There’s a high risk, like in this situation, that you lose your loved one if you don’t know what you’re doing, if you don’t know how to talk to intensive care teams, and if you’re not asking the right questions. Unfortunately, that’s just the reality.

If you’re watching this, you need to take full responsibility for outcomes. If you’re not taking full responsibility for outcomes, you might as well just leave it all in the hands of the intensive care team. There’s a lot of good things happening in ICU. The majority of things that are happening in ICU are very good but the people where it’s not going well, they’re coming to us and that’s how I make these videos. I talk about the real world and the real world is that people have grievances. They’re not grieving if patients go into intensive care and they leave ICU alive and they’re getting well, those are not the people that are writing in to us, it’s the people of the families that have grievances and are going through much pain and suffering with a loved one in intensive care.

So, that is my quick tip for today.

If you have a loved one in a similar situation, we have a membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care and you can become a member if 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 21 videos and 21 eBooks that I personally have recorded and written. Those videos and eBooks will help you once again to manage and steer this incredibly difficult environment that is intensive care. It 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.

From my perspective, you’ll be crazy not investing into our membership or into my one-on-one consulting because I also offer one-on-one consulting and advocacy over the phone, Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp, whichever medium works best for you. I talk to you and your families directly. I talk to doctors and nurses directly and I would change the dynamics in your favor, so you don’t have to be in a situation like Jeanette has been where she’s lost her husband not really knowing what she’s dealing with and not knowing how to manage it. Once again, you need to take full responsibility for outcomes. If you’re not doing that, you might as well throw in the towel right from the start. You can’t just blindly cross intensive care teams. You have to do your own research, and if you’re not doing it, that’s when things like that happen.

I also represent you in family meetings with intensive care teams. Once again, when I talk to doctors and nurses directly, I ask all the questions that you haven’t even considered asking but must be asked when you have a loved one in intensive care, once again, making sure you make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence.

Also, we offer medical record reviews in intensive care 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.

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 YouTube live if you are a subscriber to my YouTube channel or if you subscribe to our email newsletter at intensivecarehotline.com.

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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