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.

Yesterday, I was on an ethics committee meeting with one of our clients who has their loved one in intensive care. So, if any of you have watched my videos over the years, I would have said negative things about an ethics committee and that still stands.

So, I said to the client initially not to go on the meeting to begin with because ethics committees in my extensive experience, after having worked in intensive care for 25 years in three different countries, they are farce. I call them the “death committee.” They are hospital employees. There’s no third-party oversight. Ethics committees are set up to give the hospitals what they want under the guise of we do what’s “in the best interest” of a critically ill patient.

From my, again, my extensive experience after having worked in critical care nursing for nearly 25 years in three different countries where I worked as a nurse manager for over 5 years where I looked after thousands of critically ill patients and their families in intensive care, and now I’m consulting and advocating. I’ve been consulting and advocating for families in intensive care here at intensivecarehotline.com since 2013. I can say without the slightest hint of exaggeration that we have saved many lives with our consulting and advocacy. You can verify that on our testimonial section and on our podcast section at intensivecarehotline.com.

So, ethics committees, they are farce, they’re run by hospital employees, which means they’re not impartial, there’s no third-party oversight and it’s a euphemism for, “Well, we want to empty ICU beds as quickly as possible by letting people die.” Because that’s what ethics committee say, like many ICU teams say, it’s “in the best interest” of a patient to die.

Now, my first question here is, where’s the urgency in killing someone? Where’s the rush? What’s the hurry? You have to ask that question. My advice is always not to go to ethics committee meetings. My advice is if you want to think about going there, get a meeting agenda in writing and make sure you get a list of who’s going to be there in the meetings. Who are the people? Are they affiliated with the hospital? Are they hospital employees? Where’s the objectivity of such a meeting? Where the third-party oversight?

You should bring in your own advocate, which is what I did. I was in that meeting, and I believe I’ve asked all the right questions for the ethics committee to steer away from wanting to kill a patient and giving the patient and the family options. Now, I’m not saying that sometimes end-of-life is the best option, but that needs to be in agreement with all parties. The family in this situation simply isn’t ready, and yet the ICU wants to push the “ethics committee.” What a nice term for a committee that often wants to move people towards end of life because they say it’s “in their best interest.”

So, when you have a loved one critically ill in intensive care, you have to read between the lines. You have to do your own research, and you can’t just go with whatever the ICU wants you to do. Don’t let them say jump and you ask how high. You need to do it the other way around. You need to see yourself as a customer of a hospital, as a client of a hospital, and it needs to be patient and family centric, not the other way around. It doesn’t have to be hospital centric.

Now, in this situation, for example, the client has sustained a hypoxic brain injury after cardiac arrest, he’s not waking up and the ICU now says, “We should move towards end of life.” The family wants a tracheostomy, and the family has not been educated around that. The tracheostomy should be done after about two weeks in ICU not after four weeks.

Again, families are misled. ICUs are not being transparent, and then it’s much easier for them to sell families on end of life or palliative care. Once again, I am not suggesting that palliative care doesn’t have its time and its place if all parties are in agreeance, but that needs to be fully transparent.  The first step that needs to happen is offer a tracheostomy and make it transparent when a tracheostomy should be done.

So again, families in intensive care 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.

Also, in this ethics committee meeting yesterday, there would have been around 20 people on this meeting. So, clearly, they are trying to outnumber families as well. That’s why I’m telling you, you shouldn’t go there. You have a panel of “experts” that are hospital employees, that are not impartial, that are not objective, and you will be outnumbered. That’s why you shouldn’t go into those meetings, or you only go if you have agenda items discussed that you are in agreeance with and that you’re prepared for. No one can force you to go into a meeting, no one.

So, I hope that helps and I hope that answers some of your questions around ethics committees.

Because we get so many questions for families in intensive care, that’s why we created a membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care and 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 a membership area and via email, and we answer all questions intensive care related. Also, in the membership, you have exclusive access to 21 eBooks and 21 videos that I have personally written and recorded, making sure you make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence so that you can influence decision making fast when you have a loved one critically ill in intensive care, making sure your loved one gets best care and treatment.

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 handhold you through this once in a lifetime situation that you can’t afford to get wrong. I also talk to doctors and nurses directly 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.

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

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

I also do a weekly YouTube live where I answer your questions live on the show and you will get notifications for the YouTube live if you are a subscriber to my YouTube channel, or if you are a subscriber to our 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.