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YOUR INTENSIVE CARE HOTLINE - Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: My Mother Has SPO2 (oxygen saturation) Levels at 60 Even with Endotracheal Intubation & Doctors are Advising Tracheostomy

/ Patrik Hutzel - Critical Care Nurse Consultant / No Comments

Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: My Mother Has SPO2 (oxygen saturation) Levels at 60 Even with Endotracheal Intubation & Doctors are Advising Tracheostomy

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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 again about a question that I answer from a reader who writes in, who says my mother has oxygen saturation levels at 60% even with endotracheal intubation and doctors are advising a tracheostomy. That’s a little bit odd.

And like I say over and over again in my videos here. 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.

So coming back to our reader’s question here, if your loved one has oxygen saturation levels at 60% even with endotracheal intubation and even by being on a ventilator  that is in the short and even medium-term, not survivable. And it’s also not conducive to a tracheostomy. Now let me explain more.

When someone is having a tracheostomy in intensive care, they need to be stable to a point where the surgical procedure of a tracheostomy can be performed. So with oxygen levels of 60% or oxygen saturation levels at 60% it wouldn’t be safe to do a tracheostomy.

So really what you are needing to do in a situation like that, you need to find out the underlying reasons. But I also don’t believe you have a lot of time here or the intensive care team doesn’t have a lot of time to improve your mother’s situation. Why is she having an oxygen saturation of 60%? Does she have pneumonia? Does she have ARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome)? Does she have a pneumothorax? What is it that pushes her to that level?

And as I said, in the short and medium-term, it unfortunately would lead to her death inevitably and they need to fix the underlying issue of why her oxygen levels are at 60%. So I would argue this is an extremely life-threatening situation. And the tracheostomy won’t help because it wouldn’t be safe to do one.

So that is my quick tip for today.

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] with your questions.

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 the membership area and via email and we answer all questions intensive care-related.

If you need a medical record review and the second opinion in real time or if you need me to speak to doctors and nurses directly, or represent you in a family meeting or represent you with doctors and nurses, as an advocate and consultant, please contact us as well at the intensivecarehotline.com.

Now, if you need a medical record review after intensive care, we can help you with that as well.

We review medical records in real time or after intensive care. If you have unanswered questions, if you need closure or if you’re simply suspecting medical negligence, we can help you with that as well.

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

Thanks for watching.

This is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com, and I’ll talk to you in a few days.

Take care.

 

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