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Another intensivecarehotline.com Testimonial: Thank You for Saving My Husband’s Life in ICU!

Today, I have another testimonial from a very happy intensivecarehotline.com client.

My name is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com, and this is another quick tip for families in intensive care.

So today, I have an email from Karen who says,

“Hi Patrik,

It’s been 3 years now and I always share with everyone and my friends how Patrik and the intensivecarehotline.com saved my husband’s life. My husband, Tom, had just completed treatment for cancer when he then contracted COVID. He was ventilated twice, hospitalized for 4 months. A nurse told me to take him off the ventilator because his quality of life was so horrible that a nursing home would not take him. He went into the hospital at 280 and came home at 180, unable to stand, eat and had a stage 4 pressure wound.

But he went back to teaching for 2 years and he’s now retiring. Upon his retirement, I know he is a miracle and finding Patrik and intensivecarehotline.com helped save his life. He was able to dance at his son’s wedding because of Patrik and intensivecarehotline.com. He got to see another son graduate from military band boot camp.

Thank you, Patrik and intensivecarehotline.com! I will forever and ever be grateful for your care and wisdom!

Karen mentions the name of her family, which I obviously will not disclose here. Then I asked her whether we could use this for a testimonial.

She said, “Absolutely, I know God led me to you, and I will forever and ever be grateful for your support and advocacy! My heart has grieved all of those that I witnessed lose their battle and had always wished they had found Patrik and intensivecarehotline.com earlier.

God bless you and your company always!

From, Karen.”

Well, Karen, thank you so much for sharing this with me and my team and our audience, of course, because I think it is so valuable to know not only for us but also for our viewers here that the work we are doing is literally changing lives. I have said it many times here on this podcast that we have saved many lives, and there are recorded other similar videos where we get testimonials from clients.

I remember, Karen, working with you and my team working with you. We advised you step by step that just because an intensive care team says that someone won’t have any perceived “quality of life” doesn’t mean anything. It’s just a perception, and you need to look at the facts.

The biggest challenge for families in intensive care is always that they don’t know what they don’t know. They don’t know what to look for. They don’t know what questions to ask. They don’t know their rights, and they don’t know how to manage doctors and nurses in intensive care.

Well, thank God, you realized that, and you sought help so we could advise you step by step. What does it all mean? By looking at medical records, interpreting the medical records correctly, and then advising you what questions to ask, or we ask some questions, I believe, on your behalf at the time. It’s all about getting perspective, and it’s all about understanding that the vast majority of intensive care patients survive. It’s close to 90% of patients in intensive care survive. So why would your husband not survive?

You always have to keep that in mind when you have a loved one in intensive care that the odds are actually in your loved one’s favor and intensive care teams talk about quality of life after intensive care.  They wouldn’t even know what that looks like, they wouldn’t even know what that means because they’re so focused on doing work in intensive care. They don’t have the time or the knowledge to look outside of intensive care.

The reason I believe we’re bridging that gap so well is some of you know we’re also running a company, Intensive Care at Home, where we are basically looking after long-term intensive care patients at home. So, we know what is possible for quality of life at home and what isn’t. Most intensive care units have no idea about that, so they see it from a perceived resource constraint perspective.

They think there’s not enough money. They think there’s not enough beds. They’re probably right about that. There’re not enough ICU beds. There’s not enough ICU staff. So, they let people die. It’s one way to deal with bed shortages in ICU. It’s one way to deal with staff shortages. But you got to understand intensive care for what it is. It’s a perceived resource constraint game, but again, it’s only perceived, it’s not real.

The other thing is, Karen, you ask, thankfully, whether your husband is in a real or in a perceived end of life situation, and you realize that your husband is not in a real end of life situation. It’s only a perceived end of life situation and things can be done. Obviously, with our help, you’ve implemented those things, making sure you made informed decisions, you had peace of mind, control, power, and influence, and you made sure that your husband always got best care and treatment.

Even 4 months in ICU didn’t deter you from standing up for your husband, knowing full well that there is light at the end of the tunnel if you keep fighting. But what I also remember about you is that you sought help early in the journey, because if you’re not seeking help early in the journey, it’s getting more difficult. It’s not impossible to turn situations around, but it is getting more difficult. You need to ask for help from Day 1, because like I said, you don’t know what you don’t know, and that is your biggest challenge.

Intensive care is a very complex puzzle that you can only decipher if you have professional help, if you have a team on your side that understands intensive care inside out, including the dynamics.

So, Karen, we’re really grateful that you’ve reached out and that you’ve shared that with me and my team and our audience. It is wonderful to hear that. Like I always say, we have saved many lives. This is another testimonial that we are achieving what we are achieving for our clients.

I’ve worked in critical care nursing for 25 years in three different countries where I worked as a nurse manager in intensive care for over 5 years. I’ve been consulting and advocating for families in intensive care since 2013 here at intensivecarehotline.com. I can very confidently say, just like today’s testimonial confirms, we have saved many lives for our clients in intensive care with our insider knowledge.

You can verify that we have saved many lives, not only by the many testimonials we have on our website at intensivecarehotline.com. You can also verify it on our intensivecarehotline.com podcast section where we have done client interviews. I always say that our advice is absolutely life-changing, and Karen’s email today confirms that. It is absolutely life changing.

Probably 99.9% of families would have given in and they would have said, “Yep, intensive care teams know everything, and we’ll just let our loved one die.” This is why so many patients die in ICU. Very few actually will die as long as the right treatment is applied, as long as the right advocacy is applied, as long as the second opinions being given, and intensive care teams shouldn’t take the one size fits all approach.

So, with all of that said, our advice is absolutely life changing. You can join a growing number of members and clients that we have helped over the many years here at intensivecarehotline.com because we know you need help when you have a family member in intensive care.

That is why I do one on one consulting and advocacy over the phone, Zoom, Skype, WhatsApp, whichever medium works best for you. I talk to you and your families directly. I handhold you through this once in a lifetime situation that you simply cannot afford to get wrong. I also talk to doctors and nurses directly with you on your behalf or I set you up with the right questions to ask. I ask all the questions that you haven’t even considered asking but must be asked when you have a family member critically ill in intensive care.

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

We also do medical record reviews in real time so that you can get that second opinion in real time. We also do medical record reviews after intensive care if you have unanswered questions, if you need closure, or if you are suspecting medical negligence.

We also have a membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care. You can become a member if you go to intensivecarehotline.com, if you click on the membership link, or if you 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 have personally written and recorded. All of that 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 always.

All of that you get at 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.

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, what questions and insights you have from this video, and share the video with your friends and families.

I also do a weekly YouTube live where I answer your questions live on a show. You will get notification for the YouTube live if you are a subscriber to my YouTube channel or if you are a subscriber to my 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.