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

So, today’s tip is about that young people in the last two years have died. Young fit, healthy people have died because of ECMO shortages during COVID-19. So, the cat is out of the sack. This is something that I’ve been saying for the last two years, since the beginning of the pandemic, that there are simply not enough ECMO beds for COVID-19 patients with ARDS or COVID-19 pneumonia.

I’ve been observing this all the way along from day one of the pandemic, because we’ve been consulting clients all over the world during COVID. Whether it’s here in Australia, in the U.S., in Canada, or in U.K., and Ireland.

So, we have seen over and over again. When patients in intensive care, young patients in intensive care, have been diagnosed with COVID pneumonia, COVID ARDS. They were proned often, fairly early on, but with no success. The pneumonia and the ARDS would not improve after proning.

So, the next logical step would’ve been to get patients on ECMO. And when our clients have been told by ICU teams that they’re not a candidate, what they were really saying is there are no ECMO beds. There are no staff to look after them. And that’s what we’ve been saying all the way along. And now the cat is out of the sack during this Vanderbilt University study. Here is the link. 

Please keep in mind, resources in ICU are very scarce. ICU trained staff doctors, nurses are a scarce resource. And ECMO machines and ECMO trained staff are even more scarce. ECMO beds were in short supply before COVID. And the pandemic has just shown how unprepared intensive care units are for the influx of many COVID pneumonia, COVID ARDS patients. And it just goes to show that there needs to be more ICU nurses, more ICU doctors, more ICU beds, and so forth.

So, the lesson here is this, question everything. What it often means when intensive care teams say your loved one is not a candidate for this, is not a candidate for that. It just means limited resources, and you should come to Intensive Care Hotline because we can back up what we say that it’s often not a matter of resources. It’s a matter of negotiating. It’s a matter of challenging intensive care teams on a clinical level. And that’s exactly what we do here at intensivecarehotline.com as professional consultants and advocates for families in intensive care .

I hope that helps.

If you have a loved one in intensive care, go to intensivecarehotline.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website or send us an email to [email protected].

Also have a look at our membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care. There’s a link on our website or go to intensivecaresupport.org.

If you feel the video is valuable, give it a thumbs up, give it a like. Subscribe to my YouTube channel for updates for families in intensive care, comment below what you want to see next, or what questions you have or what insights you have and click the notification bell.

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

Take care.