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Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: How Understanding the Difference Between Real vs Perceived End of Life Situations has Saved a Life!

If you want to know why understanding the difference between a real and a perceived end of life situation in intensive care can save your loved one’s life, stay tuned. I have news for you.

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

Today, I actually want to read out an email from Katy who said that our information on our website has partly saved her nephew’s life.

Let me read out the email,

“Hi Patrik,

I wanted to let you know what happened with my two-month-old nephew, in case you’re wondering what happened after my last email.

The short story is that he stopped breathing, went into cardiac arrest, and my brother’s friend who’s a trained nurse resuscitated him with CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation). An air ambulance came quickly, and he was taken to a hospital in the U.K. where they worked hard to save his life, and they did.

From the outset, there was one consultant who made a very grim prognosis for my nephew despite the improvements that my nephew was making. He was on a ventilator, but starting to breathe more and more himself and he had “woken up” and started moving a bit more each day.

The consultant was looking at the brain scans and the stats and saying that it was hopeless because his brain injury was too severe for him to survive. They then detected seizure activity and gave him Phenobarbital, and after that, his breathing noticeably got much worse, and he went back into a sedated state and wasn’t responding.

Two days after that, they did an EEG (electroencephalography) and told the family that he had almost no brain activity and that his brain could not even sustain him breathing on his own. They were told it was end of life and they needed to make the decision to turn off the ventilator where they expected him to stop breathing straight away. When the parents agreed the ventilator was turned off and all treatment was withdrawn, and the DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) was put in place. That was two weeks ago.

My nephew didn’t stop breathing. He carried on breathing on his own. The hospital stand remained the same. They withheld all treatment and said he was just taking a longer time to die. They refused to reassess him.

The parents requested a transfer to another hospital as they didn’t live in the area where he was initially admitted to, and they were effectively homeless as they were in the middle of moving overseas when this happened. My sister-in-law’s parents live in that area. The hospital agreed to transfer him on that basis.

My nephew arrived in the other hospital on Monday, and this was him yesterday, and she sends a picture. He’s no longer in ICU and he’s on a children’s ward. He is being reassessed and receiving a lot of different types of care, including neurology and physiotherapy.

I want you to know that I found your side and use it at the day the ICU turned off the ventilator. It made me realize the difference between end of life and perceived end of life. I realized the whole prognosis was based on theory stats, and then EEG done while he was probably still affected by the Phenobarbital. I talked to my brother at the time, and he did his own research, and he did manage to delay the ventilator being turned off by one day, which may have been what saved him. So, you helped us indirectly, even though we never had time to consult with you.

I’m very grateful that you exist and that you are helping families like ours.

Warmest wishes,

From Katy.”

Thank you so much Katy for sharing your story and I might read out some of your previous emails on another email newsletter because I think it’s quite important that families understand that every day counts.

But he’s also a big takeaway, (A), there’s a big difference between a real and the perceived end of life situation, and I’ve made countless of videos about that topic. But here’s another important factor and I’ve been saying that on many videos here as well, your trust in the medical profession about their medical judgment must be broken because they’ve been telling you and your family that your nephew is going to die come hail rain or shine. So, what does that tell you?

The clinical judgment has been off, and for what reason? Is it because they want to stay in control of who lives and who dies? If your nephew had died, they would have told you, “Well, we told you so.” It’s about controlling the negative narrative, which is wrong.

Why do doctors and nurses go into the profession? They go into the profession to help people, not to let them die and tell families what we told you so. There needs to be a different approach.

But I’m so glad that things have worked out for you and your family, and it just goes to show, once again, that you need to do your own research and that you need a second opinion as quickly as possible because otherwise, you might be running out of time.

So, I hope that helps.

I have worked in critical care nursing since for 25 years in three different countries where I worked as a nurse manager for over 5 years, and I’ve been consulting advocating for families in intensive care since 2013.

I can confidently, very confidently say that we have saved many lives with our consulting advocacy. You can verify that on our testimonial section at intensivecarehotline.com where you can see what our clients say and you can also watch or listen to our intensivecarehotline.com podcast where we have done client interviews, and you will see on our intensivecarehotline.com podcast what clients say about how we help them to save their loved one’s lives.

That’s why we helped hundreds and hundreds of members and clients over the years to improve their lives instantly, to save their loved ones’ lives in intensive care, and that’s why we’ve created a membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care. You can become a member if you go to intensivecarehotline.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website or will simply send us an email to [email protected] with your questions.

In the membership, you will also have exclusive access to 21 e-books and 21 videos I have personally written and recorded. The information and the access to me and my team will help you to make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence so that your loved ones get 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 talk to you and your families directly. I talk to doctors and nurses directly. I handhold you through this once in a lifetime situation that you simply cannot afford to get wrong. 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. 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 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 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.

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 intensivecarehotline.com email newsletter.

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.