Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: What are the Next Steps for My Mother After 5 Days in ICU After Cardiac Arrest & Anoxic Brain Injury?

If you want to know what to do if your family member has been in ICU for 5 days after cardiac arrest with a hypoxic brain injury, stay tuned. I’ve got news for you.

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

So, we are currently working with a client who has their 65-year-old mother in ICU after she sustained a cardiac arrest after a respiratory arrest. She had CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) for several minutes, and the CT (computed tomography) scan of the brain and the MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scan of the brain suggests that there’s brain swelling and that there might be an anoxic brain injury. The family’s obviously asking, is she going to wake up? Is she going to recover from the anoxic brain injury?

Now, here are the things that we have found so far when looking at the medical records. She’s off sedation which is absolutely important that your mom or your family member stays off sedation and opiates, in a situation like that, if possible, at all, so that the intensive care teams can assess what she’s doing neurologically, i.e., is she waking up? Is she opening eyes? Is she obeying commands? That’s where the Glasgow Coma Scale is coming.

Glasgow Coma Scale is a very useful and important neurological assessment tool, and if you don’t know what I’m talking about, I’ll put a link in this video below to Glasgow Coma Scale, so that you can find an article that will help you to explain what Glasgow Coma Scale is.

Next, what is really important in situations like that as well is to try and wean patients off the ventilator and the breathing tube as quickly as possible to minimize the risk of pneumonia and liberate your family member off the ventilator. Now, in this situation, their mother is halfway there. She’s already breathing in pressure support ventilation, which is a good sign.

Next, what needs to happen to stimulate the brain and get the body going again is try and mobilize, and that starts with physical therapy in the bed, starts with stimulation in the bed. What that means is, it’s your family member, play them their favorite music, let them watch their favorite TV shows, surround them with pictures from family and loved ones. That will help. You know best what your loved one will respond to, of course. It might be something else, smell of food, all sorts of things. You know what’s best.

But from a clinical perspective, the intensive care team also needs to start physical therapy, and mobilization. Physical therapy means moving joints, moving legs, moving arms but also getting a patient out of bed, getting them in a tilt table, getting them in a tilt chair, in a recliner chair. That is all possible. The very good ICUs that I’ve worked at, we’ve always mobilized the patient, and that will help in recovery. It will help in ventilation weaning.

Now, numerous studies have shown that when patients are not being mobilized in ICU, they are deconditioning at a rapid pace. Now, on the other hand, if you do start mobilizing patients early, their recovery is much better.

Now, is there a guarantee that a patient will fully recover from an anoxic brain injury? No, of course, there are no guarantees, but I can tell you from my extensive experience that the sooner you start mobilizing, the sooner you get patients out of bed, the sooner you start physical therapy part of the rehabilitation, the higher chances of recovery. Common sense as far as I’m concerned, it’s just use common sense, and that is always good advice to use common sense.

Don’t let ICUs persuade you that they can’t mobilize, that they don’t have the staff, that they don’t know how to do it, that they don’t have the equipment. It’s all nonsense. Type into Google, “ICU mobilization of ventilated patient pictures”, and you will see pictures how a ventilated patient is mobilized in ICU. It is not optional. It is actually something that they must do to help your critically ill loved one. Don’t let them get away with excuses. It is all possible.

Keep in mind, the longer someone stays in bed without being mobilized, the higher chances of deconditioning, and the longer it takes them to recover.

Also, from experience, if people do come back from hypoxic brain injuries, it takes time. It takes time. The sooner you can start doing all the right things, the higher chances for a successful or at least of a partial recovery.

So, that is my quick tip for today.

I have worked in critical care nursing for 25 years in 3 different countries, where I worked as a nurse manager for over 5 years, and I’ve been consulting and advocating for families in intensive care since 2013 here at intensivecarehotline.com. I can very confidently say that we have saved many lives for our clients in intensive care. I can very confidently say that we have helped hundreds and hundreds of members and clients over the years to improve their lives instantly and help their loved ones to get best care and treatment whilst making sure our clients can make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence.

That’s one of the reasons why I do one-on-one consulting and advocacy over the phone, Zoom, Skype, WhatsApp, whichever medium works best for you. I talk to you and your families directly. I handhold you through this once in a lifetime situation that you simply can’t afford to get wrong. I also talk to doctors and nurses directly with you and/ or on your behalf, and I ask all the questions that you haven’t even considered asking but must be asked when you have a loved one critically ill in intensive care.

Also, I represent you in family meetings with intensive care teams so that you’d have clinical representation and advocacy in those meetings. I wouldn’t go in any of those meetings without an advocate being there who speaks the clinical language, and who knows about patient and family rights in intensive care.

We also do medical record reviews in real time so that you can get a second opinion in real time. We also do medical record reviews after intensive care if you have unanswered questions, if you need closure, or if you are 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].

We also have an online membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care. You can become a member if you go to intensivecaresupport.org or if you go to intensivecarehotline.com and you click on the membership link, you can access there. 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. In the membership, you also have exclusive access to 21 e-books and 21 videos that I’ve personally written and recorded, and that will help you to make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence, making sure your loved one gets the best care and treatment, always.

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

I also do a weekly YouTube Live where I answer your questions live on a show. You will get notification for the YouTube live if you’re a subscriber to my YouTube channel or a subscriber to my 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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YOUR INTENSIVE CARE HOTLINE - Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: What are the Next Steps for My Mother After 5 Days in ICU After Cardiac Arrest & Anoxic Brain Injury?

Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: What are the Next Steps for My Mother After 5 Days in ICU After Cardiac Arrest & Anoxic Brain Injury?

YOUR INTENSIVE CARE HOTLINE - Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: What are the Next Steps for My Mother After 5 Days in ICU After Cardiac Arrest & Anoxic Brain Injury?

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