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 yesterday we had a phone call from a lady called Mariah who more or less gave us a testimonial because she said, “Well, I’ve been watching your videos for a long time and now it makes perfect sense why you say, don’t do a PEG tube and leave a nasogastric tube in, until someone can be weaned off the ventilator and the trach.”

Now here’s the background story.

Her dad has been in ICU since the beginning of November with aspiration pneumonia. Ended up on a ventilator, a breathing tube, ended up with a tracheostomy and because of the videos that she watched, she said, well, I followed your advice and not giving consent to a PEG tube which made the intensive care team try harder and eventually started to try swallowing and food for her dad. And eventually, once he was off the ventilator, they put the cuff down, did some swallowing assessments with him and he managed to swallow. And now the trach is capped and he’s actually very close of getting or having the tracheostomy removed while he’s already eating and drinking.

Now, you might be thinking, what’s the catch here?

Well, the catch is this, when someone is having a nasogastric tube, it’s a temporary device. It’s clearly designed for temporariness. Whereas the PEG tube is designed for permanency. Now, a PEG (Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy) tube has the perception in hospitals, in LTAC (Long Term Acute Care) wherever, and in nursing homes, that when someone has a PEG tube, it’s designed to have it for good. So the perception is, well, that person will never eat and drink again, or two doesn’t matter. It’s a perception and people won’t even try to have a person eat and drink again. It’s sort of a permanent device.

Whereas a nasogastric tube is temporary, it’s designed for being temporary. A PEG is designed for being permanent. So therefore she said, we had to try starting him to eat and drink again. Now the trach is capped and the trach will come out in the next few days. She said she’s so glad and so happy that she didn’t give consent to a PEG tube because it would have pushed her dad down a trajectory she didn’t want him to go. And her dad is 83. So now you’ve got an 83-year-old man starting to eat and drink again, rather than being confined to a hospital bed or to an LTAC bed or to a nursing home bed forever with a PEG tube.

Look at nursing homes. It’s full of people with PEG tubes. It’s terrible. Is that how we want to deal with our elderly population at the end of their lives? Is that what we want to do? Just put down PEG tubes and feed them through tubes and not try and let them eat and drink again. So, it’s further confirmation to what I’ve talked about for the last decades really do not give consent to a PEG tube under any circumstances. It’s the exception to the rule.

Like I said, high spinal injury, C1, C2 spinal injury, Motor Neurone Disease, cerebral palsy, there is the exceptions to the rule, but there are actually very few exceptions to the rule of not giving consent to a PEG tube.

So that is my quick tip for today, do not give consent to a PEG tube. And today, it’s confirmed once again that outcomes are better without a PEG tube.

Now, we have a membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care. If you go to intensivecarehotline.com and 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.

I have worked in intensive care and critical care for over 20 years in three different countries where I also worked as a nurse unit manager for over five years in intensive care. And I have been consulting and advocating for families in intensive care for over 10 years here at intensivecarehotline.com.

And you can look up our testimonial section as well as our podcast section and hear what our clients say. I can say without any exaggeration that we have saved many lives with our consulting and advocacy simply by advocating for our clients and their families. Like you’ve heard me say before, 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.

Now, I also offer one on one consulting and advocacy for families in intensive care over the phone, Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp, whichever medium works best for you. And I talk to you and your families directly. But I also talk to doctors and nurses directly. If you want to set up a three-way call with you, me, and the doctors, I’m sure you will see how quickly I can change your world in a better way to a better way in a positive light just by asking the right questions, making sure the intensive care team knows you have someone on your team who understands intensive care inside out and they will no longer be able to get away with any of the games they’re playing because now you have leverage.

Now, I also represent you in family meetings with intensive care teams once again so that you can make informed decisions, and have peace of mind, control, power, and influence. I also assess with you whether you should even go into a family meeting with intensive care teams and what’s the best course of action.

We also offer medical record reviews in real time so that you can make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power and influence in real time. And we also offer medical record reviews after intensive care if you have unanswered questions, if you need closure or if you are suspecting medical negligence and all of that you get at intensivecarehotline.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website or simply send us an email to [email protected].

Now, 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 for questions and insights you have. Share the video with your friends and families.

Thanks for watching.

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

Take care for now.