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Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: My Mother’s Struggling to Come Off the Ventilator & Tracheostomy After Double Lung Transplants in ICU.

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

Today’s tip is about Tracy who writes an email who says, “My mother’s anxiety is getting the best of hers and it is taking a longer time due to the trach collar training. She has been in ICU for two months and can only do three sittings for maybe two hours each day and her anxiety make breathing very hard. She had a double lung transplant”.

So, Tracy is describing a situation here where her mother is being weaned off the ventilator in intensive care. She’s got a tracheostomy after the double lung transplant, and she can only do three sittings, maybe 2 hours each day. So that’s a very slow weaning process. Something that I’ve seen over and over again when working in ICU.

I have worked in ICU for over 20 years in three different countries where I also worked as a nurse unit manager for over five years. And I have been consulting and advocating for families in intensive care all around the world for the last 10 years.

So what Tracy is describing here is, a very slow respiratory wean, which can happen after a double lung transplant. When things are not going straightforward, maybe the size of the donor lungs are not exactly correct. Maybe there’s a little bit of a mismatch in terms of the donor with the recipient. So, there could be all sorts of issues resulting from the double lung transplant. And I’ve seen it many times where there are slow respiratory weans after lung transplant, or patients come back to ICU after lung transplant because sometimes there could be some rejection or there could be some other issues going on. So unfortunately, it’s not uncommon that these things happen.

So, in a situation like that, you would have heard me say before that mobilization is critical. If your mom can tolerate that breathing exercises, coughing exercises, a lot of TLCs (tender loving care) of course, and excellent nursing care, making sure she’s getting regular washes, getting showers, so that she can feel comfortable as much as possible in an ICU environment.

But here is the bottom line, rather than having a slow respiratory wean in ICU, your mother could have the slow respiratory wean at home with Intensive Care at Home because part of the anxiety clearly is with weaning of the ventilator that is being in a foreign or strange environment, in a hospital environment. It’s not a conducive environment for recovery if you can do the same at home. That would be my strong recommendation here.

You also haven’t mentioned why your mom has a slow respiratory. If you can shed some light, why is your mom slow at respiratory wean? In any case, go and check out intensivecareathome.com for more information on how to go home in a situation like your mom’s situation. It’s a win-win situation for everyone. It improves the quality of life for your mom. It frees up a much-needed ICU bed. It cuts the cost of an ICU bed by around 50% and you get the same outcome, and you have the care and treatment in the comfort of your own home.

Again, it’s a win-win situation.

So that is my quick tip for today.

Now, 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 simply send us an email to [email protected] with your questions.

Also have a look at our membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care at intensivecaresupport.org. There you have access to me and my team 24 hours a day in the membership area and via email and we answer all questions about intensive care and Intensive Care at Home related.

I also offer one on one consulting and advocacy over the phone, via Skype, via Zoom, on WhatsApp, whichever medium works best for you and I talk to doctors and nurses directly and ask all the questions that you haven’t even considered asking, but you must ask so that you can get peace of mind, control, power and influence when you have a loved one in intensive care.

I also represent you in family meetings with the intensive care team so that you have a voice, a strong voice on your team, making sure once again that you can make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence.

Now, we also offer medical record reviews for families in intensive care for patients in intensive care in real time so that you can have a second opinion in real time. We also offer medical record reviews after intensive care if you have unanswered questions, if you simply need closure or if you are suspecting medical negligence.

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 and what questions and insights you have from my videos.

Thanks for watching.

This is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com and intensivecareathome.com, and I will talk to you in a few days.

Take care for now.

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