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

So today’s question we have from a reader that asks, “What’s the life expectancy after tracheostomy or after a long-term or chronic tracheostomy?” What a great question to ask. So let’s break this down.

So when someone ends up with a tracheostomy, especially in intensive care, it means they can’t be weaned off the ventilator with a breathing tube or an endotracheal tube, and they need a tracheostomy as the next step to help them wean off the ventilator.

So the question to a degree is somewhat incomplete because it takes out the necessity that when someone is having a tracheostomy, that they still need a ventilator often to begin with. And then the first step is, to wean them off the ventilator. And then the next step is, to wean them off the tracheostomy, if possible at all.

Now, what does that look like in practice? It looks in practice like sometimes people can’t be weaned off the ventilator at all. And they need the tracheostomy for long periods of time. Potentially for the rest of their lives. It really depends on their underlying conditions. Do they have a neuromuscular disease? Do they have a spinal injury, a high spinal injury, cervical spine 1 and 2 (C1-C2) injuries? Do they have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)? If they have a lung transplant? And the list goes on. Do they have Guillain-Barre syndrome? The list is endless to what conditions lead to a tracheostomy and a ventilator.

So let’s just assume that the ventilator can be weaned and someone is left with a tracheostomy. Then the next questions are, can your loved one produce a good cough? Can they cough up their sputum? Can they swallow? Can they talk? Can they clear their own airway and can they protect their own airway? If the answer is yes to all of those questions, then there’s a very good chance that the tracheostomy can be removed.

But then again, there are people living with the tracheostomy for the rest of their lives. And again, it very much depends on their condition, depends on their progress. Whether tracheostomy is for the rest of someone’s life or whether it’s temporarily, depending on, whether it can be weaned or not.

Now, I have written extensively about what needs to happen to wean someone off a ventilator, to wean someone off a tracheostomy. What are the next steps? What are the bullet points for someone to have the tracheostomy removed? So just check that out on our website, intensivecarehotline.com.

And also, what is really important to know and understand here is that if your loved one needs a ventilator and a tracheostomy long-term, or if they only need a tracheostomy long-term, there are services like Intensive Care at Home.

So go and check out intensivecareathome.com where we provide services for long-term intensive care patients as a genuine alternative to a long-term intensive care stay in the home. So go to intensivecareathome.com.

Again, there are numerous articles and research about how long does it take to wean someone off the ventilator and the tracheostomy, when can a tracheostomy be removed? Just type that into our search boxes at intensivecarehotline.com or at intensivecareathome.com and you will find answers there.

So that is 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 the website, or send us an email to [email protected].

Also, check out our membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care at intensivecaresupport.org.

If you need a medical record review for your loved one in intensive care, go to our medical record review page, and you can book some time there.

Also like this video, comment below what you want to see next, and subscribe to my YouTube channel  for updates for families in intensive care and click the notification bell.

Thank you for watching this video.

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