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Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from INTENSIVECAREHOTLINE.COM, where we instantly improve the lives for Families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care, so that you can make informed decisions, have PEACE OF MIND, real power, real control and so that you can influence decision making fast, even if you’re not a doctor or a nurse in Intensive Care!
This is another episode of “YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED“ and in last week’s episode I answered another question from our readers and the question last week was
You can check out the answer to last week’s question by clicking on the link here.
In this week’s episode of “YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED” I want to answer another frequently asked question from our readers and the question this week is
How long will an Intensive Care Unit keep a critically ill Patient on life support?
This is another one of those questions where your mindset is crucial!
It’s really not about the answer to this question that matters! Your mindset to this question is what matters and it’s really more about your beliefs, your confidence and also about how you view yourself in relation to the Intensive Care team!
If you and your family “buy” into the “perceived power” and the “perceived authority” of the Intensive Care team and if you are feeling intimidated by the Intensive Care team you may as well stop reading now…
What do I mean by that?
I get a lot of phone calls and emails from extremely distressed families who have a loved one critically ill in Intensive Care and many of those phone calls and emails address the same issues over and over again!
When families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care are telling me that the Intensive Care team wants to “withdraw life support”, “limit treatment”, “wants to pull the plug” or “switch off the ventilator” they usually also tell me that the Intensive Care team is very negative and paints all but a “doom and gloom” picture.
This often all happens in the first few days after their loved one was admitted to Intensive Care!
Therefore if this happens, if the Intensive Care team is telling you that they want to “withdraw life support”, “limit treatment”, “wants to pull the plug” or “take off the ventilator” you and your family would be in a state of shock and horror!
The worst thing that I’ve witnessed with a client a couple of weeks back was that the Intensive Care team told the family that they would “withdraw treatment” on my clients 49 year old family member “tomorrow at 1pm. If you want to come that’s great but if you don’t want to be there when we do it, it’ll be fine too.”
BOOM!
This is a real world situation and I was dealing with an extremely distressed family but also with an extremely ruthless Intensive Care team.
Thankfully we were able to put a stop to the Intensive Care team removing life support, because once the family engaged me as their counsellor and consultant we were able to start asking the right questions and we were able to correctly position their critically ill family members diagnosis, their prognosis as well as their care and their treatment.
My client’s family member is still alive and is still receiving treatment in Intensive Care.
The bottom line is this.
The question is not so much
How long will an Intensive Care Unit keep a critically ill Patient on life support?
This is the wrong question to ask.
The question you need to ask is this
“What do I need to do so that I can make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power and influence if this situation occurs that the Intensive Care team positions my critically ill loved one in a light so that they are negative, paint a “doom and gloom” picture and want to withdraw life support?”
I’m so glad you’ve asked…
As I said before, if you and your family are finding yourself in the situation that the Intensive Care team positions your critically ill loved one’s case in a light where they tell you that it might be “in the best interest” for your critically ill loved one to “withdraw treatment”, “withdraw life support”, “limit life support”, “pull the plug”, “take off the ventilator” or issue a “DNR”(Do not resuscitate) or “NFR”(Not for resuscitation) order you need to start acting and thinking differently.
A mentor of mine once told me
“Some games in life you don’t play in order to win…”
Therefore you and your family
1. Need to stop communicating with the Intensive Care team on a level where they are trying to “sell” you and your family on a “withdrawal of treatment” or in essence “pulling the plug” might be “in the best interest” of your critically ill loved one
2. Get informed quickly so that you can make informed decisions, get peace of mind, control, power and influence and have care and treatment on your terms and not driven by the Intensive Care team’s “hidden agenda”
3. Stop looking at the 99% of the families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care who don’t make informed decisions, have no peace of mind, no control, no power and no influence
4. Look at proven alternative ways to get what you want, buy time to give your critically ill loved one the best shot at life there is even though the situation might look grim or has been painted as grim by the Intensive Care team
5.Get a new mindset and see yourself as a powerful force to advocate for your critically ill loved one and get the outcomes that you want
6. Get help from an expert like me who has seen, managed and mastered those “perceived” end of life situations over and over again and who knows how you need to position you, your family as well as your critically ill loved one’s diagnosis, their prognosis as well as their care and their treatment
7. Find out what you are really dealing with, I.e. are you dealing with a “real” or a “perceived” end of life situation?
Related article/video
The question is really not at all about
How long will an Intensive Care Unit keep a critically ill Patient on life support?
The question is really about you stepping up to the plate and doing what you know you need to be doing so that you know and understand what you need to do to get to
What do I need to do in order to give my critically ill loved one the best shot in their current situation so that me and my family are not at the mercy of the Intensive Care team?
And there are plenty of things that you can do.
Starting from educating yourself for free on the INTENSIVECAREHOTLINE.COM website by reading my hundreds of articles or watching my hundreds of videos or by getting some more advanced resources like
Or by simply engaging me on a 1:1 counselling and consulting level so that I can help you make informed decisions, get peace of mind, control, power and influence quickly.
But the first step is really you needing to change your mindset in all of this. Stop watching and copying the behaviour of the 99% of the families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care and start looking at what only a few of the families in Intensive Care are doing who get results and who make informed decisions, get peace of mind, control, power and influence!
Also stop asking the wrong questions.
Frame the questions more positively and again, don’t ask
How long will an Intensive Care Unit keep a critically ill Patient on life support?
Because that question alone is putting the Intensive Care team in charge of the situation and not you.
By you and your family asking more intelligent questions such as
What are the steps I need to take in order to get the upper hand in all of this and how can I maximise chances that I can get what I want and deserve so that my critically ill loved one will get the best shot at their current circumstances?
That question in and of itself is changing the dynamics of the situation because you are no longer focused on what the Intensive Care team is or isn’t doing.
You are now focused on your power state and the question alone will get your thinking in motion in what you need doing to make informed decisions, get peace of mind, control, power and influence!
“To live through an impossible situation, you don’t need the reflexes of a Grand Prix driver, the muscles of a Hercules, or the mind of an Einstein. You simply need to know what to do.”” From The Book of Survival, by Anthony Greenbank
You and your family know that you are in an “impossible situation” that you know you need help for.
Make use of the resources at hand, start asking the right questions and start moving in the right directions!
How can you become the best advocate for your critically ill loved one, make informed decisions, get peace of mind, control, power and influence quickly, whilst your loved one is critically ill in Intensive Care?
You get to that all important feeling of making informed decisions, get PEACE OF MIND, CONTROL, POWER AND INFLUENCE when you download your FREE “INSTANT IMPACT” report NOW by entering your email below!
In Your FREE “INSTANT IMPACT” report you’ll learn quickly how to make informed decisions, get PEACE OF MIND, real power and real control and how you can influence decision making fast, whilst your loved one is critically ill in Intensive Care! Your FREE “INSTANT IMPACT” Report gives you in-depth insight that you must know whilst your loved one is critically ill or is even dying in Intensive Care!
Sign up and download your FREE “INSTANT IMPACT” REPORT now by entering your email below! In your FREE “INSTANT IMPACT” REPORT you’ll learn how to speak the “secret” Intensive Care language so that the doctors and the nurses know straight away that you are an insider and that you know and understand what’s really happening in Intensive Care! In your FREE report you’ll also discover
- How to ask the doctors and the nurses the right questions
- Discover the many competing interests in Intensive Care and how your critically ill loved one’s treatment may depend on those competing interests
- How to eliminate fear, frustration, stress, struggle and vulnerability even if your loved one is dying
- 5 mind blowing tips& strategies helping you to get on the right path to making informed decisions, get PEACE OF MIND, control, power and influence in your situation
- You’ll get real world examples that you can easily adapt to your and your critically ill loved one’s situation
- How to stop being intimidated by the Intensive Care team and how you will be seen as equals
- You’ll get crucial ‘behind the scenes’ insight so that you know and understand what is really happening in Intensive Care
- How you need to manage doctors and nurses in Intensive Care (it’s not what you think)
Thank you for tuning into this week’s YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED episode and I’ll see you again in another update next week!
Make sure you also check out our “blog” section for more tips and strategies or send me an email to [email protected] with your questions!
Or you can call us! Find phone numbers on our contact tab.
Also check out our Ebook section where you get more Ebooks, Videos and Audio recordings and where you can also get 1:1 counselling/consulting with me via Skype, over the phone or via email by clicking on the products tab!
This is Patrik Hutzel from INTENSIVECAREHOTLINE.COM and I’ll see you again next week with another update!
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