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

Today’s tip is about, “Strength, determination, and never giving up.” So, we have been working with a client since September last year, and their 35-year-old loved one was in ICU with cardiac arrest, liver failure, a lot of complications, a lot of bleeding issues, and coagulation issues. And obviously, the client was ventilated for months on end with a tracheostomy.

And initially, of course, the intensive care team was telling everyone the doom and gloom and that he won’t survive and that they should just give up, and that he won’t have any quality of life. And after many months of not giving up on guiding the family through this traumatic experience step-by-step, he has finally gone home today without a tracheostomy, without a ventilator. And that was, besides all the predictions from the intensive care team that he will never come off the ventilator and he won’t have any quality of life, and we said to the family, “Do not give up”.

And they wanted to send him to LTAC (long-term acute care). Of course, we advised the family not to give consent to a PEG (percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy) tube because a PEG tube would basically be the ticket for him to go to LTAC. So, he had a nasogastric tube all the way along to avoid a transfer to LTAC. He stayed where a patient should be when someone needs to be weaned off the ventilator and a tracheostomy, and that was in ICU because that’s the only safe place where that can be done.

You should never forget that 90% of intensive care patients survive. That’s 90. So, that’s only one out of 10 patients not surviving intensive care. So, you really need to ask that question and you need to dig deep. Why is the intensive care team giving families the doom and gloom speech? Why are they so negative? Well, because they don’t want a patient like this in ICU for, it’s nearly seven months now, they don’t want that because that presents their worst-case scenario because it blocks the bed. But at the end of the day, a life was saved. A 35-year-old man’s life was saved, and that’s what it’s all about.

For many families in intensive care, that’s a nightmare, of course, and it was for this family too. But with guidance from us, step-by-step predicting what’s going to happen next, what should they be asking? What should they be advocating for? We got the outcome together with his family for what they had hoped for, and it’s been a long battle and there’s still some recovery that needs to take place. But finally, this gentleman can leave home.

Take home message for every other families, do not give up, ask for advice, and we recognize the patterns in ICU starting from the negativity all the way through to the clinical issues. What needs to happen next? What questions should they be asking? What does it all mean when certain things happen in ICU? And we can guide you through that step-by-step so that you are one step ahead of the ICU team because that’s exactly what this was. The family was always one step ahead of the ICU team by knowing what was coming next and what questions to ask, and really advocating for best care and treatment, and that really saved the life in this instance.

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, 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.

If you need a medical record review, please contact us as well. We review medical records in real time when your loved one is in ICU, which is exactly what we did with this particular client. We reviewed medical records in real time and that made all the difference. But we also review medical records after intensive care. If you’re suspecting medical negligence, if you have unanswered questions, or if you simply need closure.

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

Thanks for watching.

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

Take care.