Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: The ICU Doctor Says that My Husband Can’t Be Mobilized with a Nasogastric Tube, He Needs a PEG (Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy) Instead?!

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

So today, I have an email from one of our members that we’ve been working with for quite a few months now, who has their husband in ICU.

You will get the context as I’m reading out her email and all names I will change. It’s completely anonymous.

“Hi Patrik,

 I just got off the phone with Dr. James, CMO. He said he saw my husband while he was watching TV. My husband is alert, he’s awake. He looks much better than he did a few days ago.

He began saying that my husband needs to get a PEG (Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy) tube instead of the nasogastric tube because he needs to get up and start getting physical therapy, and he can’t do that with the nasogastric tube in his nose because nobody wants to have that taken out and put back in again.

If he had a PEG tube, he said it’s easier to just cap it and then he can get up for physical therapy. He said nobody wants to have something in their face and he’s trying to get things taken out of his face and one thing at a time. Of course, the tracheostomy tube also needs to come out and he needs to begin breathing as well, he said.

He said he’s failing the swallowing test, but they can work with that. It will take time, and he can begin eating and maybe not like one of his other patients eat steak because that’s too hard to swallow, but he can begin eating, trying to eat other things that are easier he said with the nasogastric tube out.

He said that Jim nodded that he was in pain with the nasogastric tube, he said. He said he can be given physical therapy and have portable oxygen so they can cap the tracheostomy tube but there’s no way he can get the physical therapy with the nasogastric tube in because that cannot be removed.

I told him about the 5-star rehab place that will take him once he’s off the ventilator and the tracheostomy if he doesn’t have the tracheostomy tube and the nasogastric tube, and he said it’s going to take some time to get him to that point.”

Now, I’ll just stop here for a moment before I continue with our member’s email. I will be very clear here. It’s a whole lot of rubbish and nonsense for anyone to say that a patient with a nasogastric tube cannot have physical therapy. What a whole lot of rubbish and nonsense.

I’ve worked in critical care for nearly 25 years in three different countries. I worked as a nurse manager for over 5 years, and I’ve been consulting and advocating for families in intensive care since 2013. You can read up our testimonial section, what our clients say. We have saved many lives with our consulting and advocacy here at intensivecarehotline.com. You can also watch our intensivecarehotline.com podcast with some client interviews directly.

So, this doctor is telling a whole lot of rubbish. Like I said, there’s absolutely no reason why a patient with a nasogastric tube cannot be mobilized. Plenty of patients with the nasogastric tube get mobilized and get physical therapy. That is number one.

Number two, plenty of patients with a nasogastric tube can eat and drink as they’re getting weaned off the nasogastric tube feed. So, this doctor is lying into our client’s face because that’s what it is, and he needs to be called out for that. He’s trying to push his own agenda instead of acting in the best interest of a patient.

Now, there’s plenty of evidence out there that a PEG tube causes more harm than a nasogastric tube. Now, just a couple of days ago, I made a quick video where one of our other members had a family member with a bowel perforation after a PEG tube insertion.

Keep in mind the PEG tube insertion is actually a surgical procedure.  Why would anyone in their right mind give consent to a surgical procedure if a nasogastric tube doesn’t need a surgical procedure? Just keep that in mind.

Weaning somebody off the tracheostomy and a ventilator doesn’t make a difference whether someone has a PEG tube or a nasogastric tube. If anything, the pressure is higher for someone to get off the ventilator with the nasogastric tube, because at some point, the nasogastric tube might cause pressure sores in the nose and so forth. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing because that means they have to try harder to get patients off the ventilator.

So, our member says, “On another note, I was looking up ratings from Medicare and the HCA hospitals have very low ratings in this area of which the North side hospital is one of them. So, that explains a lot.

I didn’t mention that to the doctor because I didn’t want to cause any more friction. I’m trying to keep things friendly for my husband and I think that’s a good move, especially seeing how impressed they are with my husband’s progress after he was seeing him today.

He wanted to make a decision about the PEG, and I told him I wanted to talk with you first. I asked if we could have a phone call together. But he said, no, he would not be willing to have a phone call with you”, and by that, he means myself because we are consulting with doctors and nurses directly on our client’s behalf.

“He said I should take the advice of the medical team at the hospital and the medical team at the hospital only. Thank you so much for all your help.”

So, it’s interesting that they don’t want to talk to an advocate, makes you wonder what they have to hide. If the hospitals were doing all the right things, I wouldn’t be making these videos here, we wouldn’t be getting so many emails every day from families in intensive care who feel like they are being misled or even mistreated.

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.

That’s exactly what 99.9% of families in intensive care are dealing with. Unless they’re doing their own research from Day 1, they’ll be fighting an uphill battle, not knowing what to do, not to do, what questions to ask, how to get the outcomes they want, need, and deserve for their loved ones.

In this situation, I argue this particular client’s husband would be dead by now if we hadn’t successfully advocated with our client and encouraged her and empowered her to ask the right questions and stand up for her husband to get best care and treatment so well done. You can do the same by either watching the videos, reading the content, or of course, the shortcut is by engaging me and our team directly here at intensivecarehotline.com.

That’s one of the reasons why we build a membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care. You could become a member if you go to intensivecarehotline.com by clicking on the membership link or 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, we answer all questions intensive care related.

In the membership, you also have exclusive access to 21 e-books, 21 videos that I have personally written and recorded, sharing all my two and a half decades worth of ICU experience with you and your families, making sure you make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence so that you can influence decision making fast, making sure your loved one gets best care and treatment.

I also do one-on-one consulting and advocacy over the phone, Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp, whichever medium works best for you. I talk to you and your families directly. I handhold you through this once in a lifetime situation that you simply can’t afford to get wrong. I also talk to doctors and nurses directly on your behalf. I ask all the questions that you haven’t even considered asking but must be asked when you have a loved one, critically ill in intensive care. I also represent you in family meetings with intensive care teams.

We also do medical record reviews in real time so that you can get a second opinion in real time. We also do medical record reviews after intensive care if you have unanswered questions, if you need closure, or if you are suspecting medical negligence.

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] with your questions.

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, what questions and insights you have, share the video with your friends and families.

I also do a weekly YouTube live where I answer your questions live on the show. You will get notification for the YouTube live if you are a subscriber to my YouTube channel, or if you are a subscriber to our email user at intensivecarehotline.com.

If you want to support our work here, leave a donation here at the YouTube super chat button or if you want to sponsor a video and want your question answered here on a video, leave a donation, I will read out your email in the next couple of days and answer your questions. I’ve got so many emails, I barely keep up with all the videos.

Thank you so much for watching.

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

Take care for now.