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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 frustration that we get, again, quite frequently, where one of our readers wrote in and said, “I don’t know if my loved one will be mentally damaged after a long-term coma in intensive care.” And that is a great question. Anyone going into intensive care, going into a long-term induced coma should be concerned about that because there can be long-term damages to a long-term induced coma. Probably starts out with waking up slowly. It probably continues with, that many patients in intensive care that are in the long-term coma also need a tracheostomy because they have an inability to be weaned off a ventilator because the longer someone is in an induced coma, the more difficult it is for someone to get off the ventilator and then they end up with a tracheostomy.

There are other implications from an induced coma. There could be long-term brain damage. There could be just muscle dystrophy from someone not moving for days, weeks on ends, not getting physical therapy quick enough. The concern that there are long-term damages from an induced coma are real.

There are some blogs that are specializing on long-term intensive care patients or patients that have survived intensive care and they’re sharing their insights there.  There’s one blog, I believe it’s icusteps.org that is designated for ICU survivors. And when you read there, there are definitely people sharing their frustrations after they survived intensive care. But nevertheless, people are still saying they are glad to be alive. Whilst we are not the experts on the long-term effects of intensive care, it’s definitely a concern.

Now, what’s the remedy here? The remedy here is that someone should not be in a long-term coma, and I’ve done an interview a few weeks ago with Kali Dayton from Kali Dayton ICU Consulting and she has strategies how to avoid long-term coma. So, I recommend you listen to the interview. Kali has worked in an ICU where they don’t sedate patients and listen to what she has to share because there are great strategies in how to avoid an induced coma in the first place. How to avoid a tracheostomy, for example. So, I really urge you to check out the interview and I’ll put a link below this video.

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].

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 related.

Also, if you need a medical record review while you have a loved one in intensive care, we can help you with that as well. We review medical records in real time, please contact us. We also review medical records after intensive care, in case you have unanswered questions, in case you need closure, or if you’re simply suspecting medical negligence, we can help you with all of that.

Now, 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 and 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.

Take care.