Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com today, with another testimonial from a client. And I’m just going to read the testimonial out as it is. It’s quite funny actually, it’s obviously relevant for families in critical care or families who have a loved one in intensive care. But the way the client has written the testimonial, it’s also funny and I might chuckle a bit along the way.

So this is from Krishnan, who sends a nice review and testimonial and I’ll just read it out here.

“So, on Friday, February the 9th, I checked my 88-year-old mother into a local hospital because of the following symptoms, slurred speech, steadily decreasing appetite, confusion, and legs so weak that she needed help to walk to my truck outside, even though she’d been walking fine the day before.

I managed to get her into the emergency room quickly where a series of tests and readings revealed the following; blood pressure, roughly 60/40 pulse in the 40s and a probable urinary tract infection also known as UTI. And the ER doctor told me your mother is very sick. He then asked me, “If her heart goes out, do you want us to do everything we can?” I answered, yes. And the emergency room team was fantastic. Next thing, you know, after more tests, she was sent to intensive care or ICU.

So the very next day I got a call from the nurse in ICU and she was asking me about the baseline about how my mom spoke normally. Well, I like face to face communication, so I went in to meet the nurse and her assistant and see my mom and my mom looked like death warmed over. She didn’t look awake or like she’d ever be awake again.

The nurse then started a long statement about the possibility of her heart-stopping the only options in that situation, how devastating that would be for my mother and did I want to consider do not resuscitate or DNR, but I was too afraid to make a decision. She also talked about something about comfort, which I think means turning off machines, but I didn’t like that idea either.

So I went back with a friend whose best friend is an RN in Atlanta. And my friend agreed, with the ICU nurse, who said, “I’ve seen this before, your mother is going to die. You need to be prepared for that. To let them do compressions or anything to keep her alive after a heart attack is cruel.” And even with medication, all my mom’s readings looked shaky.

Her blood pressure was bouncing around with numbers like 80/40. She was on two kinds of blood pressure medications and her pulse were still going between 40 and 80. Her oxygen was good but that seemed to be all she had going for her. So I was depressed. I didn’t see any way out.

I saw an immediate future without my mom and with no wife and no kids myself, what would that mean for me? I could survive but it wouldn’t be the same. And all these people, the ER doctor, the ICU nurse, my friend’s buddy, the RN, plus my friend who said she’d seen cases like my mom’s before and she knew it was coming, they all could be wrong, could they?

So I couldn’t sleep that night, but early Sunday morning on February the 11th, I had a brainstorm. I would go online and see what I found and that’s what led me to Intensive Care Hotline and Patrik Hutzel. I looked at the website, read that Patrik was a critical care nurse, seemed to have lots of experience, plus lots of videos and he even offered a free consultation. “Why not”, I thought. But it was 4 a.m. in the morning. But then I added, “Well, he’s got lots of funny phone numbers on his website, so maybe he won’t mind?”

So I made the call and to my surprise, Patrik answered immediately, I asked about rates and about his free consultation and soon we started the free consultation. Patrik asked all the right questions like what was wrong with my mother? What were her symptoms? And where was she now? I could tell he was German and smart. He talked to me at length about urinary tract infections and their symptoms and treatment. But once he started getting into his wheelhouse of critical care, Patrik was like Boris Becker at the Wimbledon with one big surf after another.

It’s too early as the medicine needs time to work on your mother. So after I gave Patrik the basics, he said it’s too early. The medicine needs time to work on your mother. Give it another day.

Hey, why wasn’t anybody at the hospital telling me this?

So I told my friend the one with the RN friend, here’s what she said, “So you’re going to listen to some guy 800 miles away?”  So after I told my friend with the RN friend about Patrik, she said, “So you’re going to listen to some guy 800 miles away. So the battle lines were drawn – it was an ER doctor and ICU nurse, my friend, her friend the RN all saying or suggesting my mom was KAPUT!!!

Now there’s a good old stereotypical German word. Kaput is a good old stereotypical German word. I can confirm that. And the guy from the internet saying to give the medicine time to work at least another day. Maybe there was some glimmer of hope for my mom after all.

So my friend was urging me to tell the people at the hospital not to resuscitate or issue a DNR.  DNR stands for do not resuscitate. But Patrik had put his big German thumb on the scale and my mind was made up, I’d wait another day just like he told me to.

Tomorrow never comes.

Someone once said tomorrow never comes, but this time it did. And so when I finally got the courage to go see my mom in ICU I went with my friend just in case and guess what?  My mom was awake and her numbers were getting better. Was the guy from miles away right?

Next thing you know; my mom was being sent to a regular room where she continued to show steady improvement with her only remaining symptoms being some weakness in her legs. Her pressure numbers have stabilized to where she’s off. All the blood pressure medications, her pulse is normal. Her speech is normal and her appetite is normal. Her only remaining symptom is weakness in her legs.

And so the guy from 800 miles away ended up being right.  Patrik and I also talked about the DNR and he told me how he’s against it. I think because it sets the medical team on the wrong path. But I’ve got to talk with him again to make sure. But I know it would have been the wrong path for my mom anyway.

So the lesson in all this is clear if you have a medical question or a problem and you’re not happy with the answer you’re getting, call the guy from 800 miles away.

Call Patrik Hutzel today!

Thank you very much!

Krishnan in Savannah, Georgia.”

Well, Krishnan, thank you so much for your detailed and also funny testimonial. It made me chuckle along the way. And I remember talking to you clearly I have seen UTIs (Urinary Tract Infections) in ICU patients many times. Some of you know that we are running, we’re also running a service Intensive Care at Home here in Melbourne, Australia, or in Australia in general.

And with Intensive Care at Home, many of our clients have UTIs all the time and they get drowsy when they have a UTI and we give them antibiotics, and a few days later, assuming we’re using the right antibiotics, patients wake up again. So there’s no need to panic.

Now, as far as the DNR is concerned, never ever do a DNR, and here is why, who is the hospital to say who should live and who should die? The hospital’s job is to save lives. And who’s to say that cracking ribs is not in the interest of a patient? I’m not advocating here for cracking ribs, but I’m advocating to save lives and to give people a chance. And for hospitals to say, “Oh, we should just do a DNR because this person won’t have any quality of life if we do CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation), that’s just a whole lot of rubbish. It’s just a whole lot of nonsense and it’s up to the individual to determine whether they want CPR or not. It’s not up to the hospital and the hospitals know that there’s laws around that the hospitals can’t just issue a DNR and thankfully, I mean, in this situation, Krishnan made the choice anyway. And he thinks he made the right choice.

So what I do when you call one of our numbers on the top of our website, I always offer 10, 15 minutes, free consultations, but obviously, my free time is very limited. I do have paid consulting and advocacy options beyond the free 10 or 15 minutes.

And yes, my background is German having said that, I haven’t worked in Germany for over 20 years. I am a critical care nurse by background.

I have worked in intensive care for over 20 years in three different countries, mainly English speaking countries, obviously. And I’ve worked as a nurse manager in the ICU for over 5 years. I’ve been consulting and advocating for families all around the world in intensive care since 2013 here at intensivecarehotline.com.

And like I said, we’re also running a service Intensive Care at Home and you can find more information at intensivecareathome.com. We’re running that in Australia. So I’m actually based in Melbourne, Australia and we’re keeping people out of ICU there all day, every day.

And the other thing with Krishnan that I forgot to mention, his mom was actually on inotropes and vasopressors while she was in the ICU. Things weren’t looking fantastic at the time, but as soon as she cleared the infection, she got out of ICU. It’s just simply a matter of waiting. I’ve seen it over and over again.

And unlike the hospitals, I don’t have an agenda in trying to kill people as quickly as possible because unfortunately, that’s the case often in hospitals nowadays where DNRs get issued prematurely like you would have heard.

Now in Krishnan’s case, they would have issued a DNR right on admission. And that’s just not appropriate because as you’ve seen Krishna’s mom recovered with the right treatment and now she has a chance to live her life again, hopefully.

So I hope that helps.

And like I said, it doesn’t matter whether I’m 800 miles away or potentially 8000 miles away, we have helped families in intensive care all over the world for over 10 years. Mainly in English-speaking countries. But I’m talking to people in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Australia every day. Location doesn’t really make a difference. What does make a difference is our consulting and advocacy and our insights, that is all that matters and that is what makes a difference. I can say without even the slightest hint of exaggeration that we have saved lives as part of our consulting and advocacy. And I think we’ve just saved another one with Krishnan’s mom.

It’s adding on to the long list of lives we have saved as part of our consulting and advocacy. And I couldn’t do what I’m doing without having a team working in the background, providing help in the background, doing some clinical work in the background, getting the content ready here. Big shout out here and a big thank you to my team. It wouldn’t be possible without them.

So, in the meantime, we have also created a membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care that you can get access to and you can become a member. If you go to intensivecarehotline.com, if you click on the membership link or if you are going 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.

Also as part of being a member, you also get access to 21 ebooks and videos that are not publicly available that are specifically designed for families in intensive care and specifically address the pain points for families in intensive care.

Now, as you’ve just heard, I also offer one-on-one consulting and advocacy for families in intensive care over the phone, Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp, or whichever medium works best for you. And I talked to you and your families directly. I talked to doctors and nurses directly so that you can make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence, which is exactly what I did with Krishnan. He had all of that. He made informed decisions, he had peace of mind, he had control, power and influence. If you want the same, you know where to go to.

I also represent you in family meetings with intensive care teams so that you have clinical representation and advocacy in family meetings with intensive care teams. I strategize with you before the family meeting. How to position yourself, how to position your critically loved one. Have a strategy when you go into the meeting also we strategize whether you should even go into a meeting to begin with.

Also, we 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 if you have unanswered questions, if you need closure, or if you are simply suspecting medical negligence. Please contact us as well.

And all of that you get at intensivecarehotline.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website or 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 with questions and insights you have. Share the video with your friends and families.

Thank you so much for watching.

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

Take care for now.