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If you want to know what a survivor of a cardiac arrest has to explain and to say after some time in ICU and surviving against the odds, stay tuned. I will tell you all about it.

My name is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com and I have another quick tip today for families in intensive care.

I’ve got an email here from Joan who says,

“Hi Patrik,

I went into sudden cardiac arrest on the 28th of September 2022. I was found totally unresponsive having no pulse, no brain activity, and no heart pulse, and I was not breathing according to my daughter.

My daughter did CPR for 15 minutes prior to the paramedics arriving who did a further 15 minutes of CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation). Once they got a weak pulse back, the defibrillator was used 3 times. I was still unstable but was ventilated and transported to the emergency department with a Glasgow coma scale reading of 3.

I went into ICU and put into an induced coma and was still ventilated for 6 days. I left the ICU 9 days later and put in the medical ward for 16 days. My brain scans came back good with no major problems. Although, I have no memory of one day prior and three weeks after the cardiac arrest.

The doctors informed my family on a couple of occasions that I would not make it. But if I did, I would be in a vegetative state. I was found to have aspiration pneumonia, septic shock, two-time bad infections, hypothermia, and I survived. I was classed as clinically dead with no major damage to my brain except short-term memory loss.

I’m so glad they didn’t give up on me in ICU and switch my lifeline off. I tell my kids now that I wouldn’t wake up because I was tired and just needed a peaceful sleep and rest. 

Don’t give up on anyone. Give them time to heal just like me. Some people take longer than others.

From, Joan.”

Joan, thank you so much for sharing this on my YouTube channel there. That’s why I think it’s so important that I read this out here because how many times have you heard me saying here on this podcast that you should never give up?

Just because ICU teams think, you’re not going to make it or if you are going to make it, you won’t have any quality of life or that you are a “vegetable”, which I personally find a terrible term and I would not use it. That’s why I put it in quotes. “It is not up to intensive care teams to make that call. It is up to you and your families, only what you want.”

You can see we have more and more comments like this coming where families and patients talk about their survival and that they’re very grateful that they are still alive, even though in some cases, their quality of life is not as good as it was before. That doesn’t mean people don’t want to live.

Intensive care teams are terrible at predicting the future. This is another example that intensive care teams are just terrible at predicting the future. Intensive care is unpredictable at the best of times. So, how can you predict what’s happening in 6 months’ time if you can’t even predict tomorrow? So, Joan, thank you so much for sharing this.

Also, what I’m saying over and over again, sometimes patients don’t wake up because they simply need time to heal and recover. A critical illness is costing a lot of energy. People just need time to recover sometimes.

Again, you have to question intensive teams’ clinical judgment. If they’re telling families well, your loved one isn’t going to survive. Then, intensive care teams put their foot down and say no, we’ll continue here and then you get a good outcome like this people writing in. So, you have to question the judgment of intensive care teams.

You have to wonder, is there a hidden agenda? Is it that they want to empty ICU beds very quickly? Because they don’t have enough beds, they don’t have enough staff, and they need to maximize their financial gains because often the longer someone stays in ICU, the more expensive it gets for them and the less the insurances often pay. Therefore, the pressure is high to empty ICU. But it’s as quickly as possible to get maximum payments in a short period of time.  Something for you to think about that, unfortunately, some intensive care units are not acting in the best interest of patients and families, but they’re acting in their own self-interest.

So, once again, just because intensive care teams tell you that your loved one isn’t going to survive, well, this is what this lady was told, and she now writes in that she did survive and survived against all odds. Thank you, once again, Joan, for writing in.

I have worked in critical care for nearly 25 years in three different countries and I have looked after thousands of critically ill patients and their families. I have also worked as a nurse manager for over 5 years in intensive care. I’ve been consulting and advocating for families in intensive care since 2013 here at intensivecarehotline.com. We have saved many lives with our consulting and advocacy. You can look up our testimonial section to verify what I’m saying. You can also look up our podcast section where we’ve done some client interviews.

That’s one of the reasons we created a membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care. You can become a member to our membership if you go to intensivecarehotline.com if you click on the membership link or if you 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 and we answer all questions, intensive care related.

You also have exclusive access to 21 e-books and 21 videos that I have personally written and recorded for you sharing all my decades worth of experience in intensive care so that you make informed decisions, you have peace of mind, control, power, and influence, making sure your loved one gets best care and treatment.

I also offer 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’ll make sure you stay two steps ahead in front of the in intensive care teams because I can anticipate what’s about to happen and how you need to position yourself, how you need to position your critically ill loved one. 99.9% of families don’t even know that managing intensive care teams is an option and that’s exactly what you need to do. You need to start managing intensive care teams, so they don’t manage you.

I also talk to doctors and nurses directly and I ask all the questions that you haven’t even considered asking but must be asked when you have a loved one in intensive care. I also represent you in family meetings with intensive care teams. Once again, all with a goal for you to make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence.

We also 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.

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].

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, share the video with your friends and families, and comment below what you want to see next, what questions and insights you have from this video.

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

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.

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