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

So today, I’ve got an email from a reader who says, “I’m feeling like the ICU lied about the injuries of my dad. We had no confidence in what was happening when my dad unfortunately passed away in ICU. My mom agreed to withdraw treatment, but his medical paperwork does not add up to what they claimed.” Now, the reader continues. “If someone is brain dead, how can their body breathe on its own and the heart stays pumping eight hours or so off the ventilator. And then they told me the propofol was used for pain medications. Nothing makes sense. Can you help?” Well, if you watched any of my videos and if you have any appreciation what is really happening in intensive care, then you would’ve done your research before your dad, or at the time your dad went into ICU.

We keep saying over and over again 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.

Now, the number of families that reach out to us and say, “Well, they’re telling us my mom, my dad, my brother, my sister, my spouse is brain dead” is very high.” And then, we find out very quickly that ICUs are misleading families and they’re saying, “Oh, there’s a chance that your loved one is brain dead.” And then we find out when we dig deeper that there might be brain damage, but not brain dead. Well, there’s a big difference and listen up. There’s a big difference between someone being brain damaged and brain dead. There’s a huge difference. As a matter of fact, the two have nothing to do with each other.

So, and if someone is brain dead, they’re not breathing. They have no reflexes whatsoever, and they’re more or less completely comatose. They can’t do anything, not opening their eyes, not moving, not breathing, no nothing, not responding to reflexes. If you pour, God forbid, cold water into someone’s ear or into their eyes, they’re not even responding to that. That is when someone is brain dead and there’s a formal definition for being brain dead. But you get the gist.

You’ve got to keep in mind what is really happening in ICU, when someone is declared “brain dead” rightly or wrongly, then the next discussions that ICUs often have with families is looking for organ donation. So, you got to keep asking yourself the questions, why is happening what you see is happening? But either way, you should have done your research as the minute your dad went into ICU. You can blame the hospital now, but at the end of the day, you got to take responsibility before you’re blaming the hospital. You should have done your research right away, and the internet gives you the opportunity to do that nowadays.

Now, what we can do of course, in a situation like that, is look at the medical records and confirm whether there has been medical negligence or not. But one way to manage situations like that going forward if you have a loved one in intensive care is by giving us access to the medical records and then we can review the medical records in real time. We can also talk to doctors and nurses on your behalf in real time. We can be there for you in family meetings and represent you in family meetings because if you don’t have representation in meetings with the doctors and the nurses in ICU, that’s when situations like these happen because you don’t know what you don’t know.

And to verify propofol is not a pain medication. Propofol is a sedative. So, I really hope that helps.

Again, take home message here is get help as quickly as possible. And the other take home message is brain damage is not a synonym to being brain dead. Huge difference, huge difference. If someone is declared brain dead by two independent parties, if they get the same result with the brain stem testing, that is when someone is considered brain dead. And in certain locations around the world, when someone is considered brain dead, they’re also legally dead. But that’s not the case in all jurisdictions. So again, reach out to us. If you are in a situation like that, we can guide you to help you save your loved one’s life step-by-step.

Now, 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].

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 in a membership area and via email.

Also, if you need a medical record review, please contact us as well. We review medical records in real time in ICU. If you have, we review them in real time or we can review them after intensive care, if you’re suspecting medical negligence, if you have unanswered questions, or if you simply need closure. But we highly recommend to give us access to the medical records in real time so we can review them in real time. So that situation, like the one that I’ve just read out from this reader doesn’t happen to you.

Now, 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, or what questions and insights you have.

Thank you so much for watching.

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

Take care.