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If you want to know what to do if your loved one is in ICU with a hypoxic brain injury and is not waking up, stay tuned! I will answer that question for you today.

My name is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com with another quick tip for families in intensive care. I have an email here from Casey today who says,

“Hi Patrik,

I found your videos on YouTube while searching for info for global hypoxic brain injury. I’m currently pregnant and the father of my child is in ICU on a ventilator after a drug overdose. He has been sedated on propofol until today which has been 9 days. He’s had a CT (Computed Tomography) scan and several EEGs (electroencephalogram) and MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scans done. He still has brain stem function, but a very poor prognosis is what they tell me. He reacts to pain in his upper left extremities but not his right. His eyes react to light, and he breathes over the ventilator settings. His eyes open and close and produce tears, however, he has severe full-body myoclonus as well which now he’s shaking a lot and runs a fever. I hear nothing but negative advice and outcomes from his ICU nurses. With this information and his responses still showing, should we continue to give him time like we really think he needs.  Thank you very much for all the information that you’re posting on your website and on YouTube. It’s been very helpful so far, so I’ve decided to maybe ask for your help. Thank you.”

Thank you, Casey for your email and I’m so sorry to hear what’s happening to your partner there. Nine days in ICU after a hypoxic brain injury, it’s not a long time. I know it feels like an eternity for you, but it is not a long time. So think about it, if you were to stop treatment now, you would know the outcome, he would die. If he’s on a ventilator, they would remove ventilation, he would die most likely. By you continuing treatment, you’re giving him a chance. Waking up in intensive care after an induced coma, including brain injuries is like a marathon, it’s like a sprint. It’s like switching on a light with a dimmer, it’s not like switching on a light with a switch, and it can take time.

Now, there’s no guarantee of a full recovery, of course not. However, it all comes down to the question of what is a meaningful and good quality of life? That is a matter of perception. It’s not a matter of a black and white answer because it is not black and white.

There are many patients living with a brain injury in the community and they’re living very good lives. There are also patients living in the community on ventilators, tracheostomy with a brain injury and they still want to live and they’re happy to be alive and their families love them and are happy to have them around them. So, to make such a crucial decision after nine days doesn’t seem to match what is needed in a situation, which is a very measured approach. You have to take one day at the time, that’s much easier said than done.

It is very easy to say in a situation like that, it’s all doom and gloom, it’s all negative, your partner will never wake up, if he does wake up, he doesn’t recognize his surroundings, his brain won’t be working, and he won’t have any quality of life. Once again, what is quality of life? Who makes that judgment? Who makes that determination? What is a good quality of life? It is really up to the individual and to the families to decide that and not to intensive care teams. Don’t let the negativity dissuade you from what you want for your partner and maybe, I’m sure your partner’s family might have some input there too.

Once again, one thing is for sure. If you stop treatment now, if you take the ventilator out and you let him die, you know the outcome. The outcome is almost certain: to be dead. If you continue, you give him a chance and patients have recovered after brain injury, it is way too early after Day 9 to draw conclusions what his quality of life and his recovery will look like. When patients come out of an induced coma after Day 9, for example, and they don’t have a brain injury, they can wake up very slowly. Sometimes patients without a brain injury look like they might have a brain injury because they’ve been in an induced coma for 10 days or even longer and then it takes time for them to wake up.

It’s the same here. Here you’ve got the combination of being in an induced coma and the brain injury. You’ve also got the added own complexities, got full body myoclonus. They probably have to look at giving him some anti-seizure medications. Also, you’re talking about an infection now. The longer someone stays in ICU, the higher the chances they get an infection because they’re surrounded by other sick people, is surrounded by many bugs in ICU that makes them prone to getting an infection.

Irregardless, my advice is to not give up and give him not nine days, maybe, give him 90 days, maybe give him 90 weeks. How long is a piece of string? Are you and your family and your partner’s family prepared to take those steps with him? I don’t know. I don’t have the answer for you. All I can do is guide you here and hopefully, you give your partner a chance here, and don’t let ICU dissuade you what they want. They want to empty the ICU bed as quickly as possible and they often do that by withdrawing treatment and telling families, “Oh, it’s not in the ‘best interest’ for your loved one to live. We’ll just stop  everything because we know what’s best.”

Well, this is a matter of life and death and I’m a strong believer that after having worked in critical care for nearly 25 years in three different countries where I also worked as a nurse manager for over 5 years that it’s not up to intensive care teams to decide who should live and die. It’s up to intensive care teams to keep people alive so that families can make their own choices, that patients can make their own choices, and that it’s not driven by managing intensive care beds, that it’s not driven by managing staff, and by managing equipment; should be driven by you and your family and your partner’s family, by nobody else. And the intensive care team should give you all the resources to get the best outcome for your partner.

Because we get so many questions from families in intensive care, that’s why we created a membership. Like I said, we’ve created the membership for families in intensive care. Like I said, I’ve worked in critical care for nearly 25 years in three different countries where I worked as a nurse manager for over 5 years. We’ve been consulting and advocating here for families in intensive care since 2013 at intensivecarehotline.com, and we have saved many lives as part of our consulting and advocacy. We’ve been counteracting the doom and gloom of intensive care team successfully for our clients and you can verify that at our testimonial section and on our podcast section where we interviewed clients directly. You can become a member of our membership if you go to intensivecarehotline.com if you click on the membership link or 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.

You also have exclusive access to 21 eBooks and 21 videos that I have personally written and recorded. In those eBooks and videos, I share all my decades worth of experience in critical care, making sure you can make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence.

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 handhold you through the process, making sure you stay two steps ahead of the intensive care team because in Casey’s email today, she’s showing us she is not two steps ahead of the intensive care team yet. That’s critical that you start managing intensive care teams, so they don’t manage you. That’s why I also talk to doctors and nurses directly on your behalf if you want me to do that and that will change the dynamics 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, once again, so you can make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence, making sure your loved one gets best care and treatment.

I also represent you in family meetings with intensive care teams.

We also offer medical record reviews in real time so that you can get a second opinion in real time. We also offer medical record reviews after intensive care so that you can get closure, if you have any questions, or if you’re suspecting medical negligence, we can get answers for you there as well.

All of that you get at the intensivecarehotline.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website or send us an email to support@intensivecarehotline.com 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, 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 with the YouTube live if you’re a subscriber of my YouTube channel, or if you are a subscriber of 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.