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If you want to know what to do if your husband had a cardiac arrest and a hypoxic brain injury and he’s opening eyes now, but he doesn’t recognize you and your family yet, 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 Trudy who says, “Hi, Patrik. My husband had a cardiac arrest and a hypoxic brain injury on the 16th of January 2025. He’s opening his eyes, but he doesn’t recognize our family members. What should I do for this situation? Please suggest.”

Now, Trudy, I’m very sorry to hear about your husband’s situation.

Now, like I always say, 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.

So, first off, how do you know he had a hypoxic brain injury after the cardiac arrest or that potentially went along with the cardiac arrest? How long was his downtime, i.e., how long did the cardiac arrest last for? How long did it take the ICU team or the paramedics or wherever the cardiac arrest happened? How long did it take for him to come back? Has a CT (Computed Tomography) of the brain been done, an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scan of the brain been done, an EEG (Electroencephalography) of the brain been done? And what are the results? Do you have access to the medical records? Have you seen those reports? Has a neurologist spoken to you about the outlook? Is he having seizures? Has he had the right treatment from the start, i.e., was he in cooling therapy? Most patients after cardiac arrest should be going into cooling therapy for a 24- to a 48-hour period to protect the brain and other vital organs.

Also, if he’s only opening his eyes, but he doesn’t recognize anyone, I would imagine he might still be at least having a tracheostomy, or he might be having a tracheostomy and being ventilated. It’s unlikely that he’s having a stable airway if he’s not waking up properly.

So, other questions are, is he off all sedation and all opiates? Is he off the propofol, off the midazolam/Versed, off the Precedex? Is he off the morphine? Is he off the fentanyl? Is he still on some anti-seizure medications such as phenytoin or Keppra? Because they also have a mild sedative effect.

Next question, has he been stimulated, i.e., has he been mobilized? Is he getting out of bed? Is he having showers? Is he sitting in a chair? Just because he’s not alert and awake, doesn’t mean he can’t be getting mobilized. How is he going to get alert and awake if he’s not getting mobilized and stimulated? Think about that. It would only be logical to get him out of bed and stimulate him. How is his brain about to connect all the dots again if he’s lying in bed all day?

Now, I can tell you from my extensive critical care nursing experience that the only contraindications to not mobilize a patient in ICU is if they’re unstable hemodynamically, if their blood pressure and heart rate is unstable, or if they’re having fractures and await surgery. You haven’t mentioned any of this, so therefore, a good ICU will start to mobilize him every day.

He might only tolerate 10 minutes for the first time. He might even only tolerate 5 minutes for the first time, but then build it up, even if it’s by 5-minute increments. Do physical therapy. Move his body, move his legs, move his arms. Also, you need to do that anyway, because otherwise you’ll end up with contractions. So, he’s got to keep moving.

Also, are you playing his favorite music? Are you potentially playing his favorite TV shows? Whatever the case may be. Are you having him surrounded with pictures of your family, whatever could stimulate him? It’s important that you get some familiarity around him. 

Talking about familiarity, have you considered taking him home? I don’t know all the details. t’s a very short email that you’ve sent but could he go home with a service like Intensive Care at Home? You can find more information at intensivecareathome.com.

Have you spoken to a neurologist about his long-term prognosis? What does your husband want? Have you ever discussed a situation like this with him? What would he want if he could make up his own mind? 

Depending on what the doctors and nurses are telling you, you need to consider a second opinion as well. That leads me to you getting access to the medical records, so we can have a look at the medical records and give you a prognosis and an opinion as well.

Also, you may need to consider long-term care if your husband isn’t waking up but it’s too early to say that. 2 months, it’s not even 2 months, it’s not long enough. Plenty of patients have improved after 6 months, 12 months. Unfortunately, it may take time, and you may just need to give it time.

But in the meantime, getting him out of bed, getting him moving is all very, very important. You got to do that. Otherwise, he’s definitely not going to make any progress from my extensive experience. 

It’s like training for a marathon. You can only train for a marathon by actually doing the running, and it’s the same with getting better after potentially a hypoxic brain injury. You got to train the body again. He’s not going to wake up and getting more alert by lying in bed all day. 

Imagine someone would tie you to a bed for weeks or months on end whilst being healthy, your brain would become foggy. Now, imagine someone had a hypoxic brain injury, the earlier you can start the recovery process, the mobilization, the higher the chances are your husband will improve again.

If he’s not improving, is he a candidate for a neurology rehab? The question here is this, can he go to neurology rehab with a ventilator and a tracheostomy? That’s very difficult. Those places are difficult to find. So, therefore, that’s why they need to start in the hospital right now. Wherever he is, they need to start with his rehabilitation. You need to push for that. That’s where we help with our consulting and advocacy. We get results for our clients. We get outcomes for our clients.

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 critical care and I’ve been consulting and advocating for families in intensive care since 2013 here at intensivecarehotline.com. I can very confidently say that we have saved many lives for our clients in intensive care with our consulting and advocacy.  You can verify that on our testimonial section at intensivecarehotline.com where you can see what our clients say. You can also verify it on our intensivecarehotline.com podcast section where we have done client interviews who verify that we have saved their loved ones’ lives with our insights, with our consulting and advocacy, and with our insider knowledge of intensive care.

My advice is absolutely life changing, as is documented. Like I just said, it’s absolutely life changing. That’s why you can join a growing number of members and clients that we have helped to improve their lives instantly over the years, so that you can make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, influence, making sure your loved one gets best care and treatment always.

That’s why I do 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 handhold you through this once in a lifetime situation that you simply cannot afford to get wrong. That’s why I also talk to doctors and nurses directly on your behalf or with you, or I set you up with the right questions to ask, but it’s much better if I talk to them with you on the phone or on Zoom. You will see the dynamics will change very quickly, because 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.

We also do medical record reviews in real time, 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, by clicking 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 exclusive access to 21 e-books and 21 videos that I have personally written and recorded. 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, comment below what you want to see next, what questions and insights you have from this video.

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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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