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

So, today’s tip is about a question that we had from Tracy who says, “My mother needs help. We’ve been trying to get her out of the hospital for over a month, but they keep refusing. She doesn’t want the DNR (Do Not Resuscitate). My brother walked in the other night and had DNR written on her door. She’s intubated and they are asking about a tracheostomy. There are so many things wrong with the medical reports and different diagnosis, please. I need some help and I don’t know what to do.” So, let’s break this down Tracy for you, so that you can understand what the best course of action is.

It will be very difficult to get your mom home while she’s intubated with a breathing tube, not impossible but very difficult. The simple reason for that is for example when you look at services like Intensive Care at Home, we could do a one-way extubation at home, but that would be end of life care and it doesn’t sound to me like that is your preferred option. So therefore, Intensive Care at Home at the moment, is not an option for your mom and she can’t go home while she’s intubated. So, you got to take that off the table for now.

If she can’t come off the ventilator and the breathing tube and you want to give her a chance to live, then she will need a tracheostomy. But the first question here is why is she not extubated? Why does she still have the breathing tube? You’re saying she’s been intubated now for over a month, what’s going on here? What’s going wrong? Tracheostomy should have been done after Day 10 to Day 14 of the breathing tube. So maybe, you haven’t asked the right questions.

Like I keep saying over and over again, 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. Again, this is a classic example of what you are facing here, Tracy.

So, coming to the DNR, if you don’t want the DNR, well, your mom doesn’t need a DNR if anything. It’s illegal to issue a DNR without your or your mom’s consent. I’m assuming that you and your brother are the powers of attorney here. So, it’s highly illegal to put a DNR in place if you haven’t or your mom, whoever the power of attorney is, hasn’t approved of that.

So, the first thing that I would do is ask them to revoke the DNR and also ask them to show you the policy around DNR. You will see that in the policy, it’ll say that they can’t issue a DNR without patient or family consent and that’s a legal document. So, keep that in mind.

When you are saying, “There are many things wrong with the medical reports and different diagnosis”, again, we can give you a second opinion if you want us to look at the medical records or talk to the doctors and nurses directly. It’ll change the dynamics very quickly for you because you have someone on your team that speaks the intensive care, what I refer to as intensive care, secret language and we can help you with that very, very fast.

Coming back to the tracheostomy, if you want her to live and she’s been on the ventilator now for over a month, she probably does need a tracheostomy by the looks of things. Then, if the tracheostomy needs to stay in or if the tracheostomy and the ventilator need to stay in and she can’t come off it, then you can look at services like Intensive Care at Home.

So, that is my quick tip for today.

Tracy, I hope that sheds some light on your overall situation. I can’t stress enough that families in intensive care need to do research from day one because if you had done research from day one, you wouldn’t be asking all these questions four weeks down the line. Every day counts when you have a loved one in intensive care.

You can’t be sitting on the sidelines waiting for things to miraculously disappear. You have to drive it. You have to take 100% responsibility for everything that’s happening. You have to take responsibility for it, and you got to get outside advice.

So, that is my quick tip for today.

Once again, go and check out intensivecareathome.com for more information about home care down the line.

Now, if you have a loved one in intensive care, go to intensivecarehotline.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website or simply send us an email to [email protected].

Also, have a look at our membership for families in intensive care at intensivecaresupport.org. There, you have access to me and my team, 24 hours a day, in a membership area and via email and we answer all questions, intensive care, and Intensive Care at Home related.

I also offer one-to-one consulting and advocacy for families in intensive care, and I talk to doctors and nurses directly. I can represent you in family meetings with the intensive care team. You will see once you have someone on your team that speaks their language, things would change in your favor very, very quickly. I have turned so many situations around in intensive care for families by knowing what to ask and by knowing how to hold intensive care teams accountable.

Now, if you’re looking for a medical record review and a second opinion in real-time. Once again, we can do that over the phone, or we can review medical records in real-time. We also review medical records after intensive care if you have unanswered questions, if you need closure, or if you’re simply suspecting medical negligence, we can do all of that for you.

Subscribe to my YouTube channel for regular updates for families in intensive care, click the like button, click the notification bell, share the video with your friends and families, and comment below what you want to see next or what questions and insights you have from this video.

Thanks for watching.

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

Take care for now.