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 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 question from one of our readers and the question this week is from Heather who I have consulted in the past and her question this week is
MY PARTNER IS IN INTENSIVE CARE ON A VENTILATOR! THE INTENSIVE CARE TEAM WANTS TO DO A TRACHEOSTOMY AND I WANT TO HAVE HIM EXTUBATED! WHAT DO I DO? (PART8)
Today’s episode forms the last part of an eight part series with Heather who signed up for 1:1 consulting with me.
Previous questions from Heather you can look up here by clicking on the links here, Part1, Part2, Part3, Part4, Part5, Part6 and Part7
Heather writes
Hi Patrik,
My partner’s tracheostomy is now closed up. We had almost a month long stay in a long term acute care hospital. He was weaned from the ventilator and the tracheostomy got removed. He also received physiotherapy. He has been hospitalized so long that he could barely move his lower extremities.
On March 3rd he left LTAC and he was transferred to an inpatient rehabilitation facility where he received 3 hours of Physiotherapy every single day. He got to come home on March 17th.
He came home with a walker and a wheel chair and we are starting outpatient rehab on April 7th. On March 26 he woke up and he had a temperature 100.9 F(~38.2C). I helped him sit up to give him his meds and I could hear him wheezing. I called an ambulance because I thought it would be to hard to get him in and out of the car by myself.
His oxygen levels were at 60 percent. Needless to say he had pneumonia again. They put him on a BIPAP machine in the Emergency Room and sent him back to ICU. He handled the BIPAP machine like a champ.
I went home that evening and when I came back the first thing next morning the BIPAP was off and he was on oxygen and moved to a ward. He had pneumonia and his diabetes was uncomfortable and his kidneys acted up again. He is doing much better now and even walking better, we think we’ll be able to go home and try it again on Monday.
I want you to know that finding you Patrik helped me to save my partners life. If I hadn’t been in the Intensive Care by his side asking questions and doing my own research, then that one doctor may have been able to convince my partners parents to pull the tube and give up.
My partner’s mother believes you help your loved one more by staying out of the way and letting them do their job. I fear that so many families have lost loved ones because they took this approach and gave up to soon.
I had never seen the inside of an ICU until December and I have had the opportunity and misfortune to have seen the inside of four different ICUs and I know I couldn’t have survived this if I hadn’t found you. There is no doubt that it was money worth spent.
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I realize that when I came to you I was opposed to getting the tracheostomy and with your advice I made them listen and I know I probably delayed his recovery with that since he did have to have the tracheostomy after all and it wasn’t as bad as I thought.
I do have a great respect for the Intensive Care team, most of them. I don’t think it should have to be so hard to communicate with them though. These men and women have a tough job and the families they are dealing with are very often in a once in a lifetime event so they are scared, lost, and confused. Knowing all of that doesn’t change things though.
I had to step away and collect my thoughts so that I could communicate with them properly. I was a weak emotional wreck at first and that made the nurses even nastier. I knew that he very well could have died and I decided that if he did die that I was not going to have any regrets. I wasn’t going to be at his funeral and have anything going through my head about things I should have questioned or details I left out.
It was tough these people are intimidating but they are only people after all. When I got the feedback from you and the courage to become more demanding and difficult, such good things started happening.
I didn’t really find that they were big jerks. I found out these are very special people that just forget that they not only have an obligation to their patient but to the Patients family as well.
Once I stopped allowing them to treat me as if I were invisible, I gained their respect and they gained mine. I know that got a bit long, all I wanted to say was “Thank you so much for being here”.
I am so very grateful that I found your website and that I signed up for 1:1 consulting and had direct access to you, so that we had time on Skype, over the phone and that you answered my emails. I have told other families I have come across about your website.
Thank you
Heather
Hi Heather
Thank you so much Heather for your extremely valuable and detailed feedback, insights and for your kind words.
I am very glad to hear that your partner is finally turning the corner. This is a huge success story and as you and I know, life is extremely precious and it’s something that I am hugely aware of after more than 15 years as an Intensive care nurse.
I knew that when you first contacted me that you needed help. And as you’ve correctly pointed out, having a loved one critically ill in Intensive Care is a “ONCE IN A LIFETIME” situation and most families in Intensive Care don’t take the time to do their own research and they don’t seek out for help and advice.
You have been there and you know how important it is to get educated quickly about this complex area that is Intensive Care.
You are also correct to point out that Intensive Care teams have a difficult job and that most of them are very special people.
What families in Intensive care don’t know though, is that there are way too many moving parts and wheels in motion in Intensive Care that families simply don’t know anything about. The stuff that’s happening “BEHIND THE SCENES” in Intensive Care such as the politics, the bed management issues, the hierarchy, the power play, the intrigue and the psychology etc… almost always have a huge impact into how the Intensive Care team frames or positions your loved one’s prognosis and diagnosis.
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Furthermore, Intensive Care teams are like “fish in water” and families in Intensive Care on the other hand are like “fish out of water”. That means that Intensive Care teams often forget that as you, once again, correctly pointed out, need to communicate better and appropriately with families who are completely outside of their comfort zone.
I do believe that empowering families in Intensive care is what I and INTENSIVECAREHOTLINE.COM stand for and as you know it has a positive impact.
You also should take the time to reflect and also celebrate this massive success story of getting your partner out of Intensive Care alive! You had a huge impact on your partner’s success!
You have also shown to have incredible resilience and incredible strength, as once again, you were so far outside of your comfort zone when you first contacted me that it most likely was an absolute nightmare for you.
I want to thank you once again for being a Client and also for taking the time for giving me your feedback in such great detail!
Families in Intensive Care need to support each other and your experience, your resilience and your strength are an amazing example for other families of how to overcome extreme adversity.
Your authenticity by having lived through such a massive challenge is setting an extremely positive example for other families in Intensive Care!
I also want to thank you for recommending INTENSIVECAREHOTLINE.COM to other families in Intensive Care.
Take care
Patrik
How can you become the best advocate for your critically ill loved one and 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 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 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 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 episode of “YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED”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 Products section where you get more Ebooks, Videos and Audio recordings and where you can also get 1:1 consulting with me via Skype or over the phone by clicking on the products tab!
This is Patrik Hutzel from INTENSIVECAREHOTLINE.COM and I’ll see you again next week with another update!
Your Friend
Patrik Hutzel
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