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Another intensivecarehotline.com Success Story: How to Keep Your Ventilated Loved One Out of LTAC (Long-Term Acute Care)!

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

So, today I want to share another success story from one of our clients. So, what we often do with clients, we review the medical records, we talk to them one-on-one, of course, I talk to them one-on-one. We talk to doctors and nurses directly. But more importantly, we get results. Here is another success story how we get results.

So, there’s a client at the moment in the U.S. where the ICUs has done a tracheostomy and the PEG tube (Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy) and now wants to send their mother, our client’s mother, off to LTAC. As we all know, that is a disaster area and patients going from ICU to LTAC often die because LTACs are simply not equipped to look after ventilation, tracheostomy, and PEG. Let me repeat that one more time, for anyone who still isn’t clear, when patients go to LTAC, it’s a disaster area, patients die all the time.

We have literally families reaching out to us every week begging us to help them to get their loved ones back into ICU, that’s how bad it is. This is uniquely for our U.S. audience. It doesn’t happen in other countries; this is uniquely in the U.S. Just look up LTAC reviews online, that is painting the picture and that’s pretty much all you need to know about LTAC and just one more time, in case you haven’t seen any of my other videos, do not give consent to a PEG tube, full stop. You may be able to give consent to a tracheostomy, but even that, I wouldn’t do without getting a second opinion and you can get a second opinion here at intensivecarehotline.com.

Coming back to our success story, so once again, U.S. client, we have been reviewing medical records and we were finding all the evidence why her mother mustn’t go to LTAC under any circumstances and ICU was threatening her, “Well, we’ll just move her tomorrow, the bed is ready,” which is highly inappropriate. It’s highly unethical and it’s against the law and we have evidence for that. So, what we did is we crafted the letter to a hospital executive, give them all the reasons why she can’t be moved to LTAC, and lo and behold the best, the hospital backed off. It’s no more complicated than that. One thing is for sure if you don’t ask, you don’t get, and if you don’t have your ducks in a row, they will walk all over you. You need to know what to advocate for and we know what to advocate for. We will find reasons why patients can’t go to LTAC, and they are justified reasons.

If someone has a ventilator and the tracheostomy and is going to LTAC, that is sheer and utter madness. But more importantly, it’s actually medical negligence because patients don’t improve in LTAC, they wither away. LTAC is not even the better version of a nursing home. Imagine patients going from ICU to a nursing home, that’s negligent. Patients in LTAC end up with pressure sores, their ventilation settings often deteriorate, they end up with infections because they simply don’t have the skills and the workforce to look after an intensive care patient, which is what a patient is, on ventilation with tracheostomy.

So, working with clients one-on-one, looking at medical records, talking to doctors and nurses directly, advising our clients what to say, how to say it, when to say it, what are their rights, and what’s the legislation, that’s what we help clients with, and we get outcomes every single time.

So, that is why we created a membership for our families of critically ill patients in intensive care here at intensivecarehotline.com if you click on the membership link on our website, you can become a member there. I have worked in critical care for nearly 25 years in three different countries where I also worked as a nurse manager for over five 5 years. I’ve been consulting and advocating here at intensivecarehotline.com since 2013. We have saved many lives as part of our consulting and advocacy, and you can verify that on our testimonial section as well as on our client podcast where we interviewed clients. So, if you want to become a member, go to intensivecarehotline.com, click on the membership link or go to intensivecaresupport.org directly.

In the membership, you have access to me and my team, 24 hours a day, in the membership area and via email, and we answer all questions intensive care related. In the membership, you also have exclusive access to 21 eBooks and 21 videos that I’ve personally written and recorded. Those videos and eBooks will help you to manage this incredibly difficult environment that is intensive care when you have a loved one. But more importantly, to get outcomes and results that you weren’t expecting and couldn’t get before. It will help you to make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence, making sure your loved one gets best care and treatment.

I also offer one-on-one consulting and advocacy over the phone, Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp, whichever medium works best for you. I talk to you and your families directly. I talk to doctors and nurses directly. Once again, making sure that you make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence, making sure your loved one gets best care and treatment. When I talk to doctors and nurses directly, I ask all the questions that you haven’t even considered asking but must be asked when you have a loved one in intensive care.

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

We also offer medical record reviews in real time so that you can get a second opinion in real time. We also offer 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 the intensivecarehotline.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website or send us an email to support@intensivecarehotline.com.

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

I also do a weekly YouTube live where you can ask me your questions live on the show and I will answer there. You get notification for those YouTube lives if you are a subscriber of 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.