Intensive Care Hotline

is instantly improving the lives for Families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care, so that they can make informed decisions, have PEACE OF MIND, control, power and influence and therefore stay in control of their Family's and their critically ill loved one's destiny

Contact Intensive Care Hotline
24/7 Phone Access
Need Instant Help? Call Now or... Make an Appointment

YOUR INTENSIVE CARE HOTLINE - Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: My Wife is Semi-Comatose and Off Ventilation for About 2 Months. Can the Tracheostomy Be Removed?

/ Patrik Hutzel - Critical Care Nurse Consultant / No Comments

Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: My Wife is Semi-Comatose and Off Ventilation for About 2 Months. Can the Tracheostomy Be Removed?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

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

So, Peter writes, “My wife has been in ICU for about two months. She had a stroke and she ended up on a ventilator with a tracheostomy. Now, she’s been off the ventilator for two months. She only has the tracheostomy. She’s still semi-comatose. Can she be decannulated?” What a great question to ask Peter, and I’m very sorry to hear about your wife’s situation, but here is the bottom line.

If you’re saying your wife is semi-comatose, it really comes down to, can she obey commands? Can she swallow? And does she have a good, strong cough? If she doesn’t cough, she can’t protect her own airway, which means she needs the tracheostomy for suctioning. If she can’t swallow, she needs the cuffed tracheostomy for protection from aspiration pneumonia so that her saliva goes into the stomach, not into the lungs. She can’t swallow in particular. That’s what it comes down to. It’s fairly straightforward, but I also know it’s a big obstacle for your wife and hopefully she can swallow and hopefully she can cough spontaneously.

So, if the cough, for example, is only triggered through suctioning, she needs to be able to cough spontaneously and it needs to be a good, strong cough. And if she can do that, then chances are she can be decannulated. So, check with the team.

Now, if she can’t be decannulated and I know you’re still in hospital, then you should go to intensivecareathome.com and you should contact us there at intensivecareathome.com, because there, we provide services for ventilated and tracheostomy clients at home with 24 hours intensive care nursing so that clients can actually leave ICU and hospitals, especially if they have a tracheostomy, ventilation with a tracheostomy, but also with non-invasive ventilation as well, such as BIPAP (Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure) or CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) without a tracheostomy. So, we can help you there. Go and check out intensivecareathome.com.

That is my quick tip for today.

If you have a loved one in intensive care, go to intensivecarehotline.com and contact us on one of the numbers on the top of our website. If you have a loved one in intensive care and you want to go home with Intensive Care at Home, especially if your loved one is long-term ventilated with a tracheostomy or tracheostomy only, you should contact us as well at intensivecareathome.com or simply send us an email to [email protected].

Also, if you have a loved one in intensive care, go and have a look at our membership for families in intensive care at intensivecaresupport.org. There, we answer questions for families in intensive care. You can have direct access to myself and my team.

If you need a medical record review, please contact us as well. We review medical records for clients in ICU or after ICU if you’re concerned about medical negligence in particular.

Thanks for watching.

Now, I’d appreciate if you subscribe to my YouTube channel for regular updates for families in intensive care and Intensive Care at Home, share the video with your friends and families, give it a thumbs up, give it a like, click the notification bell, 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 I will talk to you in a few days.

 

BOOK YOUR FREE 15-MINUTE CONSULTATION NOW!

Related Articles:

Default ThumbnailQuick Tip for Families in ICU: Not Knowing if I’m Doing All I Can & the Best for My Loved One in ICU Default ThumbnailQuick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: 58-year-old Dad isn’t Waking Up After Cardiac Arrest and ICU Wants to Withdraw Treatment, Help! Default ThumbnailQuick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: My Loved One is Getting Treated Like a Number in a Small Rural ICU, Help! Default ThumbnailQuick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: ICU Pushing DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) Instead of Having Treatment Plan Default ThumbnailQuick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: My Mom Bounced Back from LTAC to ICU for Kidney Failure and Pneumonia. Can She have Dialysis?