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Learn How to Keep Your Loved One Alive in ICU, Even If ICU Teams are Telling You They Won’t Survive! Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care!

“Learn how to keep your loved one alive in intensive care, even if ICU teams are telling you your loved one won’t survive.”

My name is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com.

Today, I want to talk to you about something that is absolutely critical, something that most families in ICU are not being told. That is how to keep your loved one alive in ICU, even if ICU teams are telling you there is “no hope” or that your loved one “won’t survive.”

I see this every single day at intensivecarehotline.com where we consult and advocate for families in intensive care all around the world, and we’ve been doing so since 2013. Because here at intensivecarehotline.com, we help families of critically ill patients in intensive care to make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence fast, even if you’re not a doctor or a nurse in intensive care.

As you can imagine, families come to us distraught, overwhelmed, and often blindsided. They’ve been told by doctors and nurses that, “There’s nothing more we can do” or things like, “Your critically ill loved one will never recover,” or “We should consider end of life care.”

Sounds familiar? Well, here’s the truth. Just because the ICU team says your loved one won’t survive, doesn’t mean it’s actually true. So, let me say this again because it’s so important. Just because the ICU team says there is no hope doesn’t make it the truth.

Well, if you look at the actual research, research suggests 70 to 90% of intensive care patients survive. That’s the hidden truth that the intensive care team is not telling you. They’re trying to keep that away from you, because that means the odds are in your loved one’s favour. That’s not what they’re trying to tell you because the truth is, that ICU teams are often managing beds in ICU, they’re managing finances, not just patients and families.

One thing families in intensive care don’t realize is that ICU is under enormous pressure to manage resources including beds, staff, finances, equipment such as ventilators, and much more.

If your loved one is not waking up, not improving quickly, or not improving in a time frame that’s convenient for the intensive care team, or requires long-term intensive care, they may unfortunately be seen as a non-viable case, and that is extremely sad, but that’s also the reality.

That’s only a hospital perspective, not a family perspective, and certainly not a recovery perspective. That certainly shouldn’t put you off at all, because we’ve helped so many families in intensive care turning seemingly impossible situations around, that you shouldn’t fear having a loved one in intensive care, because it can be turned around.

Because we’ve helped hundreds, if not thousands, of families in the same situation over the many years, as a matter of fact, since 2013. Me and my team have worked with hundreds or thousands of families in intensive care all around the world.

They were told that their loved one would never recover, yet they did. They were told to “withdraw treatment,” or worse, ICU teams are saying, “Let’s ‘pull the plug.’” What a terrible term to use, by the way, and families refused. They were told that their loved one was “brain dead” or in a “vegetative state.” Now, that loved one is breathing on their own, eating, talking, or even walking again.

So, let me give you some real life examples. A client of mine was told her 42 year old son would never wake up after cardiac arrest. He’s now in neuro rehab, talking and walking.

The mother was told her teenage daughter was “gone” after a traumatic brain injury. The family pushed back, got her into long-term ICU care, and now she’s recovering steadily.

If they had listened to ICU and given up, their loved ones would not be here today.

The best example that I can give you. We were working with a client a few years ago in a similar situation. I think the gentleman was in his late 50s and fell off a scaffold, head forward after cardiac arrest, had a massive brain bleed. The ICU team was adamant that he would never survive. If he would survive, he would need long-term care, and he wouldn’t have any quality of life. Obviously, we were helping the family to advocate for their father and husband, and he survived. Maybe 12 or 18 months later, he sits on a podcast with me, and his family sharing his story. I will link to this podcast here, so you can actually see that what I’m saying is true.

Whilst they seem to be miracles, I don’t think they’re miracles. They’re just showing that people are just resilient. That’s just what it is, and over time, people can recover. It’s as simple as that. But you need to put in the work, you need to put in the advocacy, you need to know what questions to ask. You need to have the right people on your team that can guide you step by step.

So, why do ICUs say there’s no hope? Let’s break down why ICU teams push for withdrawal of treatment. Number 1, they believe your loved one won’t make a quick recovery and they want to prevent suffering. I mean, life can be suffering. Just every time you’re suffering, you’re not going to kill yourself just because you’re suffering, so that’s just a whole lot of nonsense.

Number 2, they’re under pressure to clear ICU beds for other patients.

Number 3, they don’t understand your values, your goals, and what quality of life means to you.

Number 4, they underestimate recovery potential. Like I said, people are resilient, especially after events like cardiac arrest, traumatic brain injury or prolonged ventilation.

Number 5, they assume families are passive and uninformed, but you are certainly not anymore.

Here’s what you can do. If the ICU is telling you there’s no hope, you need to push back immediately because you have, I know you have hope, otherwise you wouldn’t be watching this video.

Here is how. Number 1, ask the right questions. Start by asking what exactly is the diagnosis? What’s the prognosis with and without full treatment? What are all the treatment options? Which ICU teams are often deliberately withholding from you all treatment options. That’s why it’s so important that you ask all the right questions. Ask, is my loved one in a stable or unstable condition? Don’t just accept vague answers like nothing more can be done. Drill down into all the facts. Next, you need to get access to the medical records immediately and there’s no negotiation on that.  Number 2, request a second opinion. You have every right to request another ICU doctor to review, and they must be independent, your loved one’s case. Or even better, bring in an advocate like myself, who knows how ICU works. That’s where we come in.

You will find that if you and I were to get on a call with the doctors, you will find that I will ask questions that you haven’t even considered asking, and those questions will be a game changer, because you will find very quickly that the ICU team is withholding critical information from you and your family.

Number 3, insist on continued treatment, if that’s your choice, of course. If your loved one is not brain dead, for example, and they’re not deteriorating rapidly, there’s usually room to continue treatment, even if that means tracheostomy, PEG (Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy) tube, long-term weaning, nasogastric tube, whatever the case may be.

Number 4, get help from ICU advocates such as myself and my team. This is not a battle you should fight alone. At intensivecarehotline.com, we help families like yours every single day to keep their loved ones alive, get access to treatment, navigate tracheostomy, ventilator, PEG, nasogastric tube, and rehab decisions. Push back against premature end-of-life decisions, I should say, push back against premature and inappropriate end-of-life decisions and advocate for solutions such as Intensive Care at Home. You can find more information at intensivecareathome.com. We know how to read between the lines in intensive care, understand what ICU teams are really saying, and develop a plan to keep your loved one alive.

Final thoughts. Don’t give up. Don’t let the ICU team make decisions without your input. Don’t let fear or pressure dictate your loved one’s future. If you’ve been told your loved one won’t survive and you’re being pressured into stopping treatment, you need to reach out to us now at intensivecarehotline.com.

I have worked in critical care nursing for 25 years in three different countries where I worked as a nurse manager for over 5 years in intensive care. I’ve been consulting and advocating for families in intensive care since 2013 here at intensivecarehotline.com. I can very confidently say that we have saved many lives with our consulting and advocacy because of our insights. You can verify that on our testimonial section at intensivecarehotline.com. You can verify it on our intensivecarehotline.com podcast section where we have done client interviews, because our advice is absolutely life changing.

The biggest challenge for families in intensive care is simply 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.

That’s why we help you to improve your life instantly, making sure you make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence, making sure your loved one gets best care and treatment always. That’s why you can join a growing number of members and clients that we have helped over the years, saving their loved ones’ lives.

That’s why I do one on one consulting and advocacy over the phone, Zoom, 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. When I talk to families directly, I also talk to doctors and nurses directly, asking all the questions that you haven’t even considered asking but must be asked when you have a loved one 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 a second opinion in real time. We also do medical record reviews after intensive care if in case 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, and 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 improve your life instantly, 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, share the video with your friends and families, and comment below what you want to see next, what questions and insights you have from this video.

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