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Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: How Long to Wait After Tracheostomy for Hemorrhagic Stroke? Ventilator Weaned, Now What?

How long to wake after tracheostomy for hemorrhagic stroke? Ventilator weaned, now what?

My name is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com, where we help families of critically ill patients in intensive care make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence, even if you’re not a doctor or a nurse in intensive care. Making sure your loved one gets best care and treatment, always.

Today’s question is a question we get quite frequently from families. How long does it take for a hemorrhagic stroke patient to wake up after a tracheostomy if they’ve already been weaned off ventilator? And this question also comes out of a situation with a client that we’re currently working with.

Now, first things first. There’s no one size fits all answer. The time it takes for a patient to wake up after a hemorrhagic stroke and tracheostomy depends on many factors:

1. How severe was the stroke?

2. Which area of the brain was affected?

3. Are there other comorbidities, i.e., infections, organ failures?

4. How long were they ventilated and sedated, and potentially paralyzed, before the tracheostomy?

5. Are they on a feeding tube and getting proper nutrition?

6. Are they in a quiet, healing environment or constantly poked and prodded in ICU?

If your loved one has had a hemorrhagic stroke, has a tracheostomy, is now off the ventilator in ICU, that’s actually a very positive step forward. That means they’re stable enough to breathe on their own, which is often a precondition for waking up and eventually recovering more fully.

But again, waking up can still take days, weeks, sometimes even months, depending on the level of brain injury. ICU teams might be pushing you for decisions like, “withdraw treatment” or sign a DNR or an NFR, which is a Do Not Resuscitate order, or a Not for Resuscitation order. But this is often very premature and is driven by management of ICU beds, management of ICU staff, management of ICU resources such as finances, equipment, etc.

You have to read between the lines, that what ICU is suggesting to you is really in the best interest of your family member that you’re trying to advocate for and that you’re trying to protect. In fact, if your loved one is breathing by themselves but still has a tracheostomy, they may no longer need ICU. That is where we can also help with Intensive Care at Home. And you can find more information at intensivecareathome.com, because there, we also provide 24/7 intensive care nursing at home, especially for tracheostomy and ventilated patients. Based on the evidence-based Mechanical Home Ventilation Guidelines, we bring the ICU to your home.

So, your loved one can recover in a peaceful, family-centered environment without the stress, noise, and rush of ICU. We’ve looked after many stroke patients with tracheostomies at home instead of ICU, who have slowly but surely regained more awareness, improved neurologically, and even weaned off the tracheostomy altogether in some cases.

But more importantly, they are in the comfort of their own home, and you are in the comfort of your own home instead of living in ICU, which is probably why you found this video in the first place.

If your loved one is not waking up yet after the hemorrhagic stroke, do not lose hope. The brain can take time to heal, especially after a hemorrhagic stroke. If the ICU is telling you there’s nothing more that can be done, don’t accept that as the final word. Often ICU is not the best place long-term for stroke recovery. And don’t let the negativity from ICU bog you down, especially if they’re saying your loved one will not recover in a meaningful way. Well, that is up to you. What is meaningful is up to you, not to the ICU.

And if you’re still in ICU trying to figure out all of this, go to intensivecarehotline.com, book a phone call with me, and let’s make a plan.

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.

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Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: When’s a Pt a Candidate for a Ventilator? What Criteria for a Pt No Longer Needing a Ventilator? Case Study: How to Save your Loved One’s Life in ICU or How to Prevent a “One Way Extubation” Quick Tip for Families in ICU: My 80-Year Old Dad’s in ICU After Heart Attack & Now ICU is Saying He’s in Multi organ Failure! Help! Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: How to Treat a Cardiac Arrest in Intensive Care! Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: Is it Safe for My Grandma to Go to LTAC After Stroke, Tracheostomy, and Nasogastric Tube?