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

So, this morning, I had a phone call from a lady who was inquiring about her brother being in ICU after cardiac arrest and potentially hypoxic brain injury. He had a prolonged “downtime” until the ICU team could restore cardiac circulation. But the MRI scan came back saying that there was some brain damage, and then all of a sudden, the ICU turns around and says that her brother was brain dead. And obviously, that’s why she called. She had no idea what that really means, and how can they determine someone being brain dead? And then it turns out, as far as she’s aware, the ICU team has not done any brain death testing. But here comes the kicker, her brother is opening his eyes spontaneously.

Now, when you look at the definition of brain death, it means someone is not doing anything at all. Not breathing, not moving, not opening eyes, nothing at all. That’s the definition of brain death. And also, brain death needs to be tested by two independent doctors, and there is a whole rigorous series of tests doctors need to go through in order to determine brain death.

So, what it comes down to is once again, (A), that the biggest challenge for families in intensive care is simply 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. And on top of that, intensive care teams will only tell you half of the story unless you know what to ask and you get a second opinion, and we can help you with that second opinion.

She would’ve taken her brother being brain dead as verbatim. And just by the mere fact that he’s opening eyes, he’s simply not brain dead. We can confidently say that. And I have made videos about this before. There’s a big difference between someone being brain damaged and being brain dead. There’s a big difference as a matter of fact. Her brother might be brain damaged, we don’t know yet because it’s only been like nine or 10 days, it’s way too early to say whether his brain damaged or not.

You have to do your own research. ICUs need beds, and they need beds very badly at the moment with staff shortages. And now that COVID is supposedly over, now, ICUs are full again, because all the patients that could not get treatment during COVID because they were either too scared to go to hospital or there were simply no resources available, are now blocking up ICU beds. That’s becoming more and more evident. We’ve got our ear to the ground and worldwide ICUs are full just like they were during COVID. It’s just different admission illnesses now.

So, you can’t start your research early enough as this case shows, and you can’t really take for gospel what the ICU team says. You need someone on your team that can interpret whatever the ICU team says. There’s a big difference between, once again, being someone brain dead and brain damaged. And it’s not even clear whether her brother is even brain damaged. And by the way, he’s only 43 years of age. So, very young man, should be given a chance for recovery and should be given a chance to live.

So, that’s 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 simply send us an email to [email protected] with your questions.

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, in a membership area and via email, and we answer all questions intensive care related.

We also do medical record reviews for patients in ICU in real time. So, we help families in intensive care to review medical records in real time for your loved ones so you can have a second opinion. They can interpret clinical data objectively, and not what the intensive care team wants to interpret it as. Like with the example today, with someone being brain dead when it’s not accurate, when it’s not medical fact. So, we can help you with that in real time. But we also review medical records after intensive care, especially if you suspect medical negligence, if you need closure, or if you have simply unanswered questions.

Subscribe to my YouTube   channel for regular updates for families in intensive care, click the like button, 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.

Take care.