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On the weekend, I was hosting an emergency questions and answers live for families in intensive care on YouTube. I do these YouTube lives once a week. I want to talk about this YouTube live from the weekend because I was consulting a family that joined me live on the YouTube live stream.

My name is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com, and this is another quick tip for families in intensive care. 

In the YouTube live on the weekend, I had a family on the show that has their 66-year-old dad in an ICU in the U.K., in a National Health Service (NHS) hospital. The dad is 66 and up until a few weeks ago, he was perfectly healthy. Then he was struck with a severe cough, and he ended up in ICU with pneumonia and interstitial lung disease, also known as pulmonary fibrosis, with scar tissues on the lung. Then he ended up intubated initially for a couple of days, extubated, and intubated again for a couple of days in an induced coma on a ventilator with a breathing tube and then he got extubated on high-flow nasal prongs, high-flow nasal cannula, alternating with BIPAP (Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure) and CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure). That is obviously a very difficult situation to be in because, at the moment, he cannot come off the high-flow nasal oxygen, and he cannot come off the BIPAP and the CPAP. He’s on 65 to 70% of FIO2 oxygen requirements on the high-flow nasal cannula. The family didn’t know the BIPAP or CPAP settings.

One of the questions that the family had or was asking me was, he is on steroids for the pulmonary fibrosis and interstitial lung disease, and the intensive care team told the patient and the family that if they don’t work by a certain date i.e. Sunday, then his only option would be end-of-life care. Bear in mind, this man is a young man at 66 years of age and who has worked all his life up until a few weeks ago, up until this hospital admission.

Now, the intensive care team also wanted to make him a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate), and the family already successfully objected to that with my help because they sent me a message afterwards saying, “Oh, they revoked the DNR just by your help—by helping us advocate and by helping us with the argument that he shouldn’t be on DNR.”

We know that our consulting and advocacy works and give families in intensive care outcomes. At no point in time did the intensive care team offer any other treatment options. Another treatment option in a situation like that would be a lung transplant, which would be perfectly logical. For someone with pulmonary fibrosis, interstitial lung disease, and scar tissue on the lungs, many patients are at home on high-flow nasal oxygen and are on a lung transplant list. Given that he’s in ICU, he would be a good candidate to get on a lung transplant list.

I have seen, in my extensive work in critical care, where I looked after thousands of critically ill patients and their families while working in intensive care in three different countries, including having worked as a nurse manager in critical care for over 5 years, seeing patients with pulmonary fibrosis go on to lung transplants is literally happen overnight, and they sometimes have received a lung transplant within a few days. The intensive care team in this situation is saying he’s too weak for that. Well, he’s still mobilizing, he’s still getting out of bed every day, he’s eating, drinking, and talking, which is what the patient at home would do as well if they’re on high-flow nasal cannula. The argument that he’s too unwell is not really cutting it.

The intensive care team is obviously hell-bent on creating a narrative about end of life. They’re creating a narrative of doom and gloom without actually looking at the realities of whether this is a real or a perceived end-of-life situation. The real end-of-life situation is if someone can’t be saved with any treatment, medication, surgery, or equipment, then that’s a real end-of-life situation. In this situation, I strongly believe this is a perceived end-of-life situation and not a real end-of-life situation.

I’ve made plenty of videos over the years highlighting the difference between a “real” and “perceived end-of-life situation. Go and check them out, go to my website, intensivecarehotline.com, and type in the search bar “real and perceived end-of-life situation,” and you’ll get plenty of information there. I think it is important for you that you understand the difference. 

If the intensive care team was taking the right approach, there’s a very high chance that this man would have a very good outcome with a lung transplant. But obviously, they’re not interested in putting in the resources for a 66-year-old man, which is really disappointing. They’re focusing on the end-of-life narrative, and they just want to empty their ICU bed. 

But this story continues, so just bear with me. They gave him this deadline that if the steroids don’t work by Sunday, his only option is end of life. Well, what if the steroids work by Tuesday? What if the steroids work by Thursday? Because nobody knows until you’ve tried, and what’s the issue with keeping trying?

If the intensive care team is creating the doom-and-gloom end-of-life narrative for this family and for this man, if that wasn’t already enough, it’s getting better. They have told the gentleman and the family to move him to what the intensive care team calls the “dumping ground.” Yes, you’ve heard that correctly. They want to move him to the dumping ground.

What basically the family told me on this YouTube live and I’ll link to the YouTube live so you can hear it for yourself is that this particular ICU in the NHS in the U.K. is moving their patients, that they think are dying, to that dumping ground, and they’re not putting it in quotes.

I verified it with the family, “Is that really the term they’re using?” They said, “Yes.” It’s even written on the whiteboard in their dad’s room, “for discharge to the dumping ground.” That is unbelievable that any ICU or any hospital would use such a degrading term for someone that’s potentially at the end of life, but it’s also extremely degrading for patients that are dying. It’s an absolute disgrace. It’s a terrible phrase to use, it’s unheard of. Apparently, it makes reference to the palliative care ward (palliative care or hospice ward). Palliative care, just for reference, means end of life care, why would anyone refer to a dumping ground for people that are dying? That is absolutely terrible. It just goes to show that human life is no longer worth living apparently, according to the NHS, in this particular hospital. They need to be called out for that, and it’s absolutely shocking. 

I just want to keep focusing on here that it is extremely concerning that an ICU labels a palliative care ward as a dumping ground. Looks like human life doesn’t matter anymore, especially in the NHS in the U.K. The NHS in the U.K. is in such a big mess. But given that the NHS over the years has publicly shown that they’re prepared to kill children publicly, and I’ll just mention here Charlie Gard, Alfie Evans, just Google these names, just to name a few babies they’ve killed over the years publicly whilst their parents had the money to fly these children out to Italy, or to America for ongoing treatment, the NHS decided to kill them instead. Of course, the NHS has no qualms labeling the palliative care ward a dumping ground.

Now, they’re also trying to tell the patient that if he is going to the “dumping ground,” then he will be comfortable because then he will be getting fentanyl, morphine, midazolam, which is hastening death, and that is euthanasia. Euthanasia is illegal in the U.K., but it’s happening every day in ICU. With my extensive experience in ICU, euthanasia is happening every day in ICU all around the world, but no one wants to label it as such because it is illegal. 

I’ve advised the family to advocate for a lung transplant, and I advised the family to advocate to not let him go to this palliative care ward that they completely inappropriately label as a dumping ground. Like I said, the ICU team has already removed the DNR, which again shows that our consulting and advocacy works and that it is absolutely life changing. But it also shows that what is happening in this particular situation is so shocking, and I do believe that some ICUs have completely lost their morals and ethics, and they’ve stopped providing the services they’re meant to provide, which is saving lives. 

Like I said, I’ve worked in critical care nursing for 25 years in three different countries, where I’ve worked as a nurse manager for over 5 years in critical care. 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. You can verify that on our testimonial section at intensivecarehotline.com. You can verify it on our intensivecarehotline.com podcast section at intensivecarehotline.com where we have done client interviews.

Because I know we have saved so many lives for our clients in intensive care with our consulting and advocacy, we can do the same for you. Just like I’ve done on a YouTube live, just with some insights that only a few people have, we could already remove the DNR for this gentleman and hopefully give him a second chance at life.

You can join a growing number of clients and members. We have helped hundreds and hundreds of members and clients over the years, improving their lives instantly, making sure they make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence when they have a loved one critically ill in intensive care, so that their loved one always gets the best care and treatment. You can do the same by joining us. 

Our advice and consulting are absolutely life changing because 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.

That’s 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. When I talk to doctors and nurses directly with you or on your behalf, or set you up with the right questions, 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. 

I also represent you in family meetings with intensive care teams. 

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

We also have a membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care, and you can become a member if you go to intensivecarehotline.com, if click on the membership link or if you go to intensivecaresupport.org directly. 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 have personally written and recorded. 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.

All of that you get at intensivecarehotline.com. 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. 

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

I also do a weekly YouTube live where I answer your questions live on the show. You will get notifications for the YouTube live if you’re a subscriber to my YouTube channel or if you are a subscriber to my intensivecarehotline.com 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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