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.
So, today I want to ask what some people might perceive as a controversial question, but I don’t really care. The question is, what is the rush to let someone die in intensive care? This is a question that I need to ask because we’re getting so many inquiries every week where families in intensive care say, “Oh my loved one is in ICU, they’re critically ill and now ICU says, ‘Well, we should make a decision about ending their life because they’re not going to survive, and if they do survive, they won’t have any ‘quality of life.’”
Now, let me bring out the statistics first and foremost. Approximately 90% of intensive care patients in Western countries survive, those are the statistics. It varies a little bit from country to country, but a good 85 to 90% of intensive care patients survive, which means the odds are in a patient’s favor to survive an intensive care stay. That doesn’t talk about what happens when they go to a hospital ward or a hospital floor, doesn’t talk about what their life looks like six weeks down the line, six months down the line, doesn’t talk about any of that, just survival of intensive care stays.
So, why is it that some hospitals rush the patients’ families towards end of life? What’s the hurry? What’s the hurry in killing someone? Please write your comments in the chat pad. Write your comments below this video and tell me what you think. What’s the hurry in killing someone? There’s plenty of time to talk about end of life. If it doesn’t work, if treatment doesn’t work, there’s plenty of time to talk about end of life in intensive care, and I’ve seen that.
I’ve worked in critical care nursing for nearly 25 years in three different countries where I’ve worked as a nurse manager for over 5 years. I’ve been consulting and advocating for families in intensive care since 2013 here at intensivecarehotline.com and we’ve been saving many lives as part of our consulting and advocacy. You can verify that on our testimonial section at intensivecarehotline.com and you can verify it on our intensivecarehotline.com podcast section where we’ve done some client interviews.
The reality is we have helped so many families to turn those situations around. Now, can we save a life? Not always, but we’ve saved many lives with our consulting and advocacy, and what we can do at the very least is buy some time.
If someone is inevitably going to die in the intensive care, get an end-of-life situation on your terms, not on intensive care team’s terms. That’s really important because families and patients can understand that maybe it is the end of their life but then have an end-of-life situation on their terms and not on intensive care team’s terms who say, “Oh, well, we’re going to withdraw life support tomorrow at 3pm.” That’s like an execution. I’ve seen that in intensive care, and it must never happen. I have stood successfully up against those practices when I worked in intensive care still as a bedside nurse because that’s just extremely unethical.
Families want to have a say when and how their loved ones are going to die. Modern equipment, modern technology can make that happen most of the time, not all the time, but most of the time.
Also, are there ulterior motives? Well, keep in mind that last year or post-COVID, there was a documentary from the NBC in the United States. I’ll post the link below the video regardless. That highlighted through a documentary that some hospitals in the U.S. are getting incentivized to move patients towards palliative care and let them die. Getting financially incentivized and then the patients don’t even show up in the mortality rate of the hospital. One has to wonder why those practices are existing.
One has to wonder why in the U.K. in particular, the NHS (National Health Service), why children such as Alfie Evans, Charlie Gard and others have died in the name of the state instead of flying them out to other countries such as Italy or the United States or Germany to get experimental treatment that could have potentially saved those kids’ lives. But instead, the courts ruled in favor of the NHS, basically allowing the NHS to kill those children. So highly, highly inappropriate.
Why are we not waking up about what’s really happening in this world? There’s a lot of good things happening in ICU, and I’ve seen it, been part of it, but I’ve also seen the negatives of it. Unfortunately, the issues that we’re dealing with here at intensivecarehotline.com are the negatives.
One has to wonder, is there an element of population control? What is the hurry in killing someone? What’s the narrative all about when intensive care teams say, “Well, even if your loved one does survive, they won’t have any quality of life.” Well, I say that’s perceived quality of life and who are you? Who are intensive care teams to tell families or patients what quality of life is acceptable for them or for their family members? It’s not up to intensive care teams to decide what quality of life is acceptable for patients and their families, that’s up to the individual.
So, I encourage you to check out the documentary that I post below this video as well about some health insurances in the U.S. incentivizing hospitals to let their members die and move them to palliative care. One has to wonder why doctors and nurses go to a helping profession if they follow the money and not their ethics and their morals. So, please keep that in mind as well.
Also, check out my article and my video that I’ve done about what’s the difference between a perceived and a real end of life situation that I’ll link below as well. Very different that you understand the difference between a real and a perceived end of life situation. Once you understand that, you can position yourself and your critically ill loved one situation much, much better, then you understand the dynamics around real versus perceived end of life situation and you can manage it accordingly.
99% of families in intensive care don’t think that they can manage intensive care teams, but that’s exactly what we’re doing here at intensivecarehotline.com. We manage intensive care teams, so they don’t manage you, and that’s how we helped hundreds of clients and members over the years.
That’s why we’ve created the membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care. You can become a member if you go to intensivecarehotline.com if you 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 eBooks and 21 videos than I have personally written and recorded that will help you to make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence so that you can influence decision making fast and so that your loved one gets best care and treatment really fast.
I also 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 talk to doctors and nurses directly. I also represent you in family meetings with intensive care teams. I handhold you through this once in a lifetime situation that you can’t afford to get wrong. When I talk to doctors and nurses directly, I asked 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.
We also do medical record reviews in real time, and 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 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 families, and comment below what you want to see next or what questions and insights you have.
I also do a weekly YouTube live where I answer your questions live on the show and you will get notification for the YouTube live if you are 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.
Please watch from 1 hour and 19 minutes until the end, highly relevant for this video. Patients who die in hospice care don’t count in the mortality rate for the hospitals, making the numbers look good, unbelievable!
https://rumble.com/v2wtd84-how-to-avoid-the-trap-of-the-medical-industrial-complex.html