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

So, at the moment, we are working with a client who has their 76-year-old mother in intensive care with a pneumonia. Initially, she went for a trial extubation, but she only lasted for about two to four hours and had to be reintubated. And now the client asked us, “Is there anything else that should have happened after trial extubation? And what should happen after trial extubation?” If someone is struggling, they should be put on CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) or on BIPAP (bilevel positive airway pressure) or on high flow nasal prongs, and they should be having chest physiotherapy as well. Those would be strategies to prevent reintubation in any case. In this situation, that wasn’t done, and the client didn’t ask for it because they simply didn’t know.

Anyway, cutting the long story short, the client went back in ICU to be reintubated and then deteriorated further with another onset of pneumonia, query ARDS (Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome), also known as lung failure. And they started her on prostacyclin, which seems to have worked for now. They started her on sildenafil, also known as Viagra, because she’s got right heart distress or right heart failure.

As the client was getting himself informed and was asking the hospital more and more very specific intensive care questions, which we set him up with, the ICU was getting more and more irritable and sort of saying, “Oh, why are you asking all these questions?” And they were getting very reluctant answering his questions. And he then asked for the medical records, and they said there’s a 30-day release notice. And they were making up all these craps and all these delayed tactics, and he wasn’t happy at all.

So, I said to him that he should write to the hospital chief executive officer (CEO) or hospital general manager and make a formal complaint. And lo and behold, since he’s done that, the ICU is giving him all the information when he’s on the phone with them and asking all the specific ICU questions that we set him up with. And apparently, they’re speeding up releasing the medical records.

So, the reason I want to bring up this example is simply, a lot of clients that we work with or have inquiries from, they also want to always keep the peace with intensive care unit (ICU), and they don’t want to upset them, but in their gut, they know that what ICU is doing is just not right. And why would they withhold critical information? They’re worried that it would be to the detriment of their loved one in ICU. And that’s not the case because they have a duty of care for your loved one and for yourself. So, do not shy away from asking for what is right. Do not shy away from asking for what you need. It’s the right thing to do. And do not shy away from making formal complaints on an executive level because it works most of the time. A general manager or a hospital CEO will not ignore a complaint from an unhappy family.

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 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 and where we answer the questions for families in intensive care and Intensive Care at Home, 24 hours a day.

If you need a medical record review while loved one is in intensive care or after intensive care, especially if you suspect medical negligence, please contact us as well.

And, like the 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 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.