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Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com with another quick tip for families in intensive care. So, today’s tip is about premature babies in Neonatal ICU.

I was on a call with a client yesterday who has their seven-month-old son in NICU, with the Neonatal ICU, and their son was born prematurely at 24 weeks and is suffering from lung disease, has been ventilated with a breathing tube from Day 1. He’s now been in the NICU since then.

And now the intensive care team is talking about stopping life support for the seven-month-old boy saying that he won’t survive, that he shouldn’t have a tracheostomy, and the doom and gloom and so forth.

So, the client reached out to us saying, “What do we know about premature babies in ICU? What’s the prognosis, especially with lung disease?” Well, here is what we know about.

Whilst we don’t know the full medical history, we’ve looked after premature babies at home with Intensive Care at Home. So go and have a look at Intensive Care at Home.

We’ve looked after premature babies at home after they spent time in ICU, 12 to 15 months. First Neonatal ICU then Pediatric ICU, they all ended up with a tracheostomy. They then went home on a ventilator with a tracheostomy. We wean them off the ventilator and the tracheostomy at home. After about six months at home, they had not only the ventilator removed, but also the tracheostomy removed. They got decannulated. So really good outcome for those babies.

Now, of course, they had to keep improving in ICU, otherwise they wouldn’t have been discharged home with Intensive Care at Home. But it is certainly an option.

And, for such a young life, I’m surprised the ICU team hasn’t done a tracheostomy yet. He’s now paralyzed. He is on multiple sedatives and opiates to tolerate the breathing tube.

So, I’ve advised the family not to give up and, tell the intensive care team that even home care is an option, assuming that the child can improve and then go home with a service like Intensive Care at Home with a really good outcome.

So again, it comes down to that, the biggest challenge for families in intensive care is 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.

So, if you have a loved one in intensive care, you need to do your research, you need to know what questions to ask. You need to get that second opinion because otherwise, as you can see in this situation, you are fighting an uphill battle if you don’t know about options such as Intensive Care at Home. And once again, check out intensivecareathome.com for more information there.

Now, if you have a loved one in intensive care, pediatric intensive care, neonatal intensive care, please contact us at intensivecarehotline.com. And 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 ask your questions.

I also offer 1:1 consulting and advocacy for families in intensive care. I talk to intensive care teams directly. I can represent you at the family meetings. I offer this via phone, Zoom, WhatsApp, Skype, whichever medium works best for you.

If you need a medical record review and a second opinion in real time, please contact us as well. We can do that for you in real time and if you need a medical record review after intensive care, if you have unanswered questions, if you need closure or if you are suspecting medical negligence, please contact us as well. We also provide nursing assessments for our clients, especially when it comes to Intensive Care at Home, nursing care at home.

So that’s my quick tip for today.

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 like button, 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 will talk to you in a few days.

Take care for now.