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Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: The ICU Wants Hospice Care for My Mother Today, or Should She be Weaned Off the Ventilator?

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

So today’s tip is about that you should never rush into an end-of-life decision in intensive care. So case in point today. So we are currently working with a client, who has their 54-year-old mother in ICU. 54 that’s a very young age. And this lady has been in hospital since August initially for a respiratory infection.

Never been in ICU but has been hospitalized for quite some time. Has got a long-standing premedical history, but I’m not going into too much detail into now. But she has had a recent ICU stint, where she ended up being intubated for a few days and extubated after about three or four days, went back to the hospital ward, the hospital floor and then bounced back into ICU again with another respiratory infection where she needed intubation again. And she’s now been intubated for about one week. She does have a fairly long premedical history. But listen to this, what the ICU team told the family, the ICU team basically told the family your mom won’t come off the ventilator. She shouldn’t have a tracheostomy, and she shouldn’t have a PEG (Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy) tube because if she does get through this, she won’t have any quality of life and she will never go home ever again. And that she should consider palliative care and if she wants palliative care and end-of-life care, she can have her mother dead today. Those are the palliative care team’s words in a situation like that.

Now, how insensitive is that? It’s absolutely appalling. So it makes you wonder what is the hurry in killing people? What’s the rush? As I said, I am absolutely appalled by what this particular hospital told our client.

Well, to also showcase you that, why I’m saying don’t rush into an end-of-life decision ever. The day after the client told us, well, she’s now had a spontaneous breathing trial. And she’s now slowly opening her eyes because there was no response. She’s coming out of an induced coma. There hasn’t been any response yet, but now she’s having a spontaneous breathing trial which lasted for about three hours. And she’s opening her eyes for the first time.

So, whilst they are baby steps, they are still steps and they are steps in the right direction for someone who’s dying, they’re not opening eyes for someone who’s dying. They’re not doing spontaneous breathing trials. But there seems to be a real push for hospitals to get rid of patients as quickly as possible, and one avenue for hospitals to do that is obviously by ending their lives. And it’s interesting that the palliative care team says, well, if you want that we can do that today. Does that mean they would euthanize her? Does that mean they would hasten death? Just putting that question out there for everyone to contemplate what’s happening in the real world.

And, families are smart enough now to ask their own questions and they’re coming to places like intensivecarehotline.com. We give them a second opinion. We pull aside the curtains of what’s really happening, and every baby step now for our client’s mother to move forward means, hopefully, she’s coming to that place where she can recover, where she can potentially avoid the tracheostomy. We don’t know that yet. It’s too early.

Or even if she can’t, then she can have a tracheostomy, and wean off the ventilator in her own time. That’s assuming the hospital will be doing all the right things, which I have concerns about, that they are doing all the right things. If they’re trying to push to kill people.

So that is my quick tip for today. Never rush into an end-of-life decision. Always, double, triple check, and Legal a second opinion. You can get that second opinion here at

intensivecarehotline.com because as far as we know, once someone is dead, they’re dead. There’s no return from that as far as we know. So, always double and triple check, that you’re not rushing into any decisions, always make decisions that you don’t regret in 12-months-time from today. And you may well regret moving your mom towards end of life today, you may regret that in 12-months-time.

So that’s my quick tip for today.

If you have a loved one in intensive care and you need help, 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, we have a membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care where you can get access to me at intensivecarehotline.com, if you are clicking on the membership link there, or 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.

I also offer one on one consulting advocacy  for families in intensive care over the phone, via Skype, via Zoom, via WhatsApp, or whichever medium works best for you. And I talk to doctors and nurses directly in intensive care. And I ask all the questions you haven’t even considered asking. And I make sure you make informed decisions, and get peace of mind, control, power, and influence fast.

Very few families have peace of mind, control, power, and influence, let alone make informed decisions when they have a loved one in intensive care. And you can see that by the example that I’ve given today. I also represent you in family meetings when you have a loved one in intensive care, making sure that there’s a balance in a family meeting, making sure that someone is there that can ask all the right questions that need to be asked so that you can push your agenda versus ICU teams pushing their agenda.

We also offer medical record reviews in real time. If you want a second opinion in real time, please reach out to us and 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.

Now, thank you so much for watching. If you like my videos, subscribe to my YouTube channel for regular updates for families in intensive care, like the video, comment below what you want to see next. Click the notification bell. Share the video with your friends and families.

And 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.