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

Today, I spoke to a client who has their 77-year-old mom in ICU. She had seizures at home, aspirated, and ended up in ICU, ventilated with a breathing tube. She was ventilated for about 12 days. Finally, the family was told she’s ready for extubation, which means they are able to remove the breathing tube.

The client was saying that their mother was responding to commands, was opening eyes, seem to be ready to have the breathing tube taken out. Sort of within 24 to 48 hours after extubation, she seems to be holding her own, is on high flow nasal prongs, high flow nasal oxygen. But ICU seems to be giving her sedation, but it is also very secretive about what they’re giving you.

The family thinks they’re giving her sedation, and basically palliative care has moved in and said, “I would just make her comfortable because she won’t recover. If she does recover, she won’t have any quality of life.” 

Now, the family is having second thoughts now because they don’t seem to understand what’s exactly happening, which is why they reached out to us here at intensivecarehotline.com.

Like I always say, the biggest challenge for families in intensive care is 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.

This is again another example that families, if they don’t do their research, it’s now Day 13 in ICU, and now, they’re finally coming to the conclusion that the ICU team may not have the best interest of their mother at heart because if she would be taken off all sedation, maybe she could wake up, get mobilized, get out of bed. But the ICU team says, “Well, she won’t recover.” Well, how do you know she won’t recover? What if she’s not been given a chance, which is what it looks like now.

So, they’ve asked us for a second opinion. We are now looking at the medical records, and we also asked the family in the meantime to ask the intensive care team what medications is their mother on? It’s very important that they find out whether they’re giving morphine, for example, or other opiates that have as a main side effect respiratory depression. When someone comes off the ventilator in ICU, the last thing you want is for someone to have respiratory depression. That’s why you need to stop opiates as quickly as possible. 

They don’t believe that their mother is in pain. She doesn’t seem to indicate that she’s also still talking. So, if she’s talking, get her off sedation, get her off opiates, and ask her what she wants. Don’t make assumptions about people and say, “Well, they won’t survive. She won’t have any quality of life.” Ask the patient what they want, let them make the choice. 

It’s about choice and control. It’s about patient autonomy. It’s not about paternalistic hospital hierarchy, making decisions about patients’ lives. That is just wrong as far as I’m concerned.

So that is my quick tip for today.

I have worked in critical care for nearly 25 years in three different countries where I have also worked as a nurse manager for over 5 years in ICU. We’ve been consulting and advocating for families in intensive care here at intensivecarehotline.com since 2013. 

I can confidently say that we have saved many lives here at intensivecarehotline.com. You can verify that on our testimonial section or on our intensivecarehotline.com podcast where we’ve interviewed our clients who will tell their stories.

That’s also why we created a membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care. 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, and we also review medical records in the membership.

In the membership, you also have exclusive access to 21 e-books and 21 videos that I have personally written and recorded. Those videos and e-books 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.

I also 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 also 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, critically ill in intensive care. I also represent you in family meetings with intensive care teams and you are in a once in a lifetime situation that you simply can’t afford to get wrong.

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.

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 [email protected] with your questions.

If you like my video, 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, share the video with your friends and families.

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

Thanks 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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Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: When’s a Pt a Candidate for a Ventilator? What Criteria for a Pt No Longer Needing a Ventilator? Case Study: How to Save your Loved One’s Life in ICU or How to Prevent a “One Way Extubation” Quick Tip for Families in ICU: My 80-Year Old Dad’s in ICU After Heart Attack & Now ICU is Saying He’s in Multi organ Failure! Help! Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: How to Treat a Cardiac Arrest in Intensive Care! Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: Is it Safe for My Grandma to Go to LTAC After Stroke, Tracheostomy, and Nasogastric Tube?