Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

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

Today, I want to talk about, “What can happen after cardiac arrest, hypoxic brain injury, and liver failure after many weeks in intensive care?” So, here’s what that looks like in this situation. We’ve been working with a client now for many years who went into intensive care after cardiac arrest, secondary to liver failure, and he ended up in ICU with a hypoxic brain injury. Ended up with severe liver and kidney failure. He ended up with GI (Gastrointestinal) bleeds. He ended up with thrombocytopenia, ended up on inotropes and vasopressors, ended up on dialysis, multiple blood transfusions, had rectal bleeds, as I said, GI (Gastrointestinal) bleeds, had bronchoscopies, had gastroscopies. Very, very complex. Very sick for number of weeks. Ended up eventually with a tracheostomy. His life at times was certainly hanging at a thread. Had multiple infections, multiple septic shocks.

Now, here we are a few weeks later, had one failed attempt to wean off the ventilator. And here we are many weeks later, he’s still in an intensive care, slowly, very slowly waking up. His coagulation seems to be under control, no more bleeds. His liver seems to slowly recover. His kidney has certainly recovered. No more dialysis needed. His heart has recovered, no more inotropes or vasopressors. And he now for the first few days, has time off the ventilator and he’s slowly, very slowly waking up and he’s now at the brink of slowly leaving intensive care, going to a step-down ICU or to an HDU (High Dependency Unit).

Moral of the story: You can never believe the doom and gloom that the intensive care teams are telling you, I mean, no one has a crystal ball. And what I keep always saying is, you have to try. You have to try to get people better and this is what happens sometimes. Some patients don’t make it. In this situation, the patient looks like he is making it. He’s a young man. He’s only 35. He’s got a young family. And it’s a no-brainer to keep trying for anyone. And it’s a really great success story. Hopefully, he can keep improving. But those go to show that the intensive care team there was very, very negative. Gave the family the doom and gloom speech, saying that if he does survive, he would end up in a nursing home and we don’t know what that will look like down the line. But at the end of the day, our client’s family member is alive, and he can have another shot at life, and then we will see what happens.

But even if he does end up in a nursing home, he wants to live, and the family wants him to live. And it also shows that no one is infallible in making predictions in the future. No one can predict the future. As far as I know, no one has a crystal ball. So, you got to determine your own luck and you got to fight for what’s right, which is what we’re doing here at intensivecarehotline.com.

So, that’s my quick tip for today.

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.

If you need a medical record review, you can contact us as well if you need a review while your loved one is in ICU or after intensive care. If you suspect medical negligence, please contact us as well.

And, 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, give it a like, give it a thumbs up, 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.