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Quick Tip for Families in ICU: My Mother is in ICU with COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), Ventilated & Intubated, ICU Wants to Kill Her by Giving Sedation & Morphine

If you want to know what can be done if the ICU team suggests to you to put your family member on hospice care and letting them die, and what other options there are, stay tuned! I’ve got news for you.

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

So today, I have an email from Lydia who says:

“Hi Patrik,

My mom has been diagnosed with COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) and required use of an oxygen machine at home. She had complained and began panicking from not being able to catch her breath three days ago, and she’s now on a ventilator in the hospital. She was admitted for extreme shortness of breath. Oxygen saturation was in the 50s. They sedated her and placed her on a ventilator with a breathing tube.

Three days later, the ICU doctor expressed that there are no other options, placed her on hospice care, and now they’re doping her up with sedatives, propofol, and morphine until she dies from organ failure. Is there really nothing else we can do? Please help us as soon as possible before they kill my mom. I need to know we did all we could for her.”

As part of the email, she sends some emojis, praying hands and crying face. It’s very heartbreaking, the email that Lydia is writing.

So, Lydia, here’s what you need to know.  First off, did you know that there’s a difference in intensive care between a real versus perceived end-of-life situation?

Now, 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. They don’t know how to manage doctors and nurses in intensive care, and that’s exactly what you’re up against in this current situation.

First off, you need to determine: Is this a real or perceived end-of-life situation? What’s the difference? I’m glad you’ve asked. A real end-of-life situation is that no treatment, no surgery, no medications, no fancy treatment, no equipment, no nothing will save your loved one’s life; that’s a real end-of-life situation. A perceived end-of-life situation is that there’s a perception that it could be the end of life, but that’s just it, it’s a perception.

In the meantime, the intensive care team needs to move heaven and earth to save your mother’s life, and they’re not doing that, they’re moving her, or wanting to move her to hospice. Now, what I don’t understand, Lydia, is they’re walking all over you. They’re telling you, “We’re going to kill your mom,” and you just nodded off. I’m glad you’ve reached out now. That is potentially murder, doping her up with morphine and propofol, letting someone die, that could be perceived as murder; that could be perceived as euthanasia.

The definition of euthanasia is the hastening of death, and giving her propofol and morphine is definitely hastening death. Instead, they should be treating her COPD. Have they given her steroids? Are they adjusting her ventilation? What else is going on? Have you got access to the medical records so that you can get a second opinion? We can give you a second opinion here at intensivecarehotline.com. It boggles my mind that 99.9% of families in intensive care do not question. They just have intensive care teams walking all over them. You can’t let that happen to you.

So, are there other options? Of course, there are. Instead of doping her up, moving her to hospice, and letting her die, you need to look for treatment options. Once again, you need to get access to the medical records. Also, if they’re trying to put her to hospice and letting her die without your consent, assuming that you are the next of kin or the power of attorney, once again, that could be perceived as murder or euthanasia. You need to challenge it. They’re basically telling you, “We’re going to kill your mom,” and you’re just sitting there idle, seriously?

You know, you need to take one common denominator for families in intensive care that get results and get the outcomes they want is they take full responsibility for the outcomes and they get the help they need. Our clients are extremely determined to get the outcomes they want and to get the outcomes they need. But it all comes down from standing up, not taking no for an answer, and not letting people walk all over you.

So, of course, there’s lots of things that needs to be done. The first thing that you need to do is tell them to start treating her and stop killing her; that is the first thing you need to do. Because if her main problem is COPD, let’s treat the COPD. If they put her on hospice with morphine and midazolam, yes you’re absolutely right, she will go into multi-organ failure, for sure.

So, what else is happening? Is she hemodynamically unstable? Is she on inotropes or vasopressors? If her heart is working, if her kidneys are working, if she’s absorbing feeds, there are a lot of things that are working in her favor. But your biggest challenge at the moment is that you don’t know what you don’t know. You have rights; you just need to exercise them. So, get access to the medical records, call me again, and then we’ll talk to the doctors and nurses directly because I’ll hold them accountable. We are professional consultants and advocates for families in intensive care. We know the legislation, we know your rights, and they’re basically telling you that you have none.

Also, because you’re writing to me from the United States, you should also be watching this documentary from NBC from last year, where basically some health insurances are incentivizing hospitals to move patients to hospice. They get incentivized, basically they get money, and then those deaths don’t even show up in the mortality rate of the hospital. It’s ridiculous. There’s a killing machine working, and people need to wake up. People need to wake up to the reality.

I’ve 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. We’ve been saving many lives for our clients in intensive care. You can verify that on our testimonial section at intensivecarehotline.com and you can verify it at our intensivecarehotline.com podcast section where we’ve done client interviews, and you get it from our clients directly.

I’ve looked after thousands of critically ill patients and their families in intensive care and looked after hundreds and thousands of critically ill patients and their families here at intensivecarehotline.com. I understand intensive care inside out, and I’ve got a team working with me in the background, that’s why we’ve helped hundreds of members and thousands of clients over the years here at intensivecarehotline.com.

That’s why we created a membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care. You can become a member if you go to intensivecarehotline.com if 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 me and exclusive access to 21 eBooks and 21 videos that I’ve personally written and recorded. All of those resources 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.

I also do one-on-one consulting and advocacy over the phone, Zoom, Skype, WhatsApp, whichever medium works best for you. I handhold you through this once in a lifetime situation that you simply can’t afford to get wrong. I also talk to doctors and nurses directly. I also represent you in family meetings with intensive care teams. 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 critically ill in intensive care.

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 you have unanswered questions, if you need closure, or if you are suspecting medical negligence.

All of that you get at intensivecarehotline.com. Call us on one of the numbers at the top of our website or simply send us an email to [email protected] with your questions.

If you like my video, subscribe to my YouTube channel for regular updates for families in intensive care. Click the like button, click the notification bell, and comment below on 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 a notification for the weekly YouTube Live if you’re 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.

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