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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 a reader shares and the reader says, “My frustration is that the ICU tells me that my loved one will need to have a tracheostomy and then go to LTAC to be weaned off the ventilator there.” And in case you don’t know what LTAC is, LTAC stands for long-term acute care hospital or acute care. This is predominantly for our audience in the U.S., but I will talk about other countries such as Australia, and the U.K., and Canada in immediate as well. So, stay tuned.

So, in the U.S., what’s unique there is that a lot of patients in ICU that can’t be weaned off the ventilator with a breathing tube may end up with a tracheostomy and then the ICU’s trying to send them to LTAC as quickly as possible and that is simply dangerous. So, before you agree to a tracheostomy and LTAC, or sometimes it’s also called subacute facility or skilled nursing facility, or simply a rehab facility, you need to do your research because otherwise, you and your loved one are in danger territory. Let me explain.

So, when someone is in intensive care on a ventilator with the breathing tube, the goal should always be to wean someone off a ventilator and the breathing tube and to avoid the tracheostomy at all costs, really. And your first question to the ICU team should be what are you doing beyond the shadow of a doubt to get my loved one off the ventilator and avoid a tracheostomy? So, that your loved one can be extubated, have the breathing tube removed, and go off to a normal recovery. And if that can’t happen, they should have a plausible explanation. I have written an article about, “How to wean someone off a ventilator and a breathing tube?”, and I will link to that article and video below today’s video so you can actually have a look what needs to happen to wean someone off a ventilator and a breathing tube to begin with.

Now, if your loved one for whatever reason is in the unfortunate situation where they do need a tracheostomy, and the ICU team has done everything beyond the shadow of a doubt to get your loved one off the ventilator and the breathing tube, then your next step is not to consent to go to LTAC. And again, I have made countless videos about that too, “How to avoid LTAC in the first place”. And that could be as simple as not giving consent to a PEG (Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy) tube. I will not go into detail here today. Again, I will make sure there’s a link below this video to other videos and articles for your reference.

LTACs are dangerous places. You’re going from ICU level care, ICU doctors, ICU nurses to LTAC. That’s the better version of a nursing home if at all. So, you’re really going into danger territory, and we strongly advise against LTAC. We help families through our advocacy and consulting to keep them out of LTAC and keep them in ICU for long as long as it’s clinically necessary. And we help families to put pressure on the ICU team and hold them account, making sure your loved one gets best care and treatment and gets tracheostomy ventilation weaning whilst in ICU.

If you are in Australia, for example, and you are finding that your loved one can’t be weaned off a ventilator, you should have a look at intensivecareathome.com. So, at Intensive Care at Home here in Australia, we are helping long-term intensive care patients to leave intensive care and go home with intensive care nurses, 24 hours a day, and we provided genuine alternative to a long-term stay in ICU and we are bringing the ICU into the home and help ICUs free up beds, give patients and families quality of life, that’s adults and children, and cut the cost of an ICU bed by around 50%. So, go and check out intensivecareathome.com.

And if you’re in the U.K., you should contact us as well. We can help you facilitate potentially a transfer home as well. We know the U.K. system is, again, slightly different, but we have helped families in the U.K. to go home from intensive care with long-term ventilation and tracheostomy as well. So, you should contact us anyway at intensivecarehotline.com.

If you have a loved one in intensive care, you should go to intensivecarehotline.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website or 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, and we answer all questions intensive care related. You have access to me and my team in a membership area and via email.

And again, if you need help with home care to go home from intensive care, especially if you’re in Australia, you should check out intensivecareathome.com as well and contact us through one of the numbers there.

And if you need a medical record review while your loved one is in intensive care or after intensive care, especially if you suspect medical negligence, please contact us as well. We can help you with a medical record review as well.

Thanks for watching this video.

Subscribe to my YouTube channel  for regular updates for families in intensive care and Intensive Care at Home, 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, or what questions and insights you have from this video.

Thanks for watching.

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