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Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: How We Saved My Sister’s Life by Resisting a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) in ICU

“How we saved my sister’s life by resisting the DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) in ICU.”

My name is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com, where we instantly improve the lives for families of critically ill patients in intensive care so that you can make informed decisions, have peace of mind, real power, real control, and so that you can influence decision-making fast, even if the doctor or a nurse in intensive care, so that your loved one gets best care and treatment always.

Today, I want to share an incredible success story from one of our clients, Cassidy, who fought tooth and nail for her sister’s life in intensive care — and she won with our help.

So, I’ll read out the email from her:

“Hi Patrik,

I hope you’re well. I thought you might be interested to know that my sister is still alive and well! She has gone from not being able to walk at all to taking regular walks, and from not being able to talk to having full conversations.

I sensed something was very wrong early on, and I had no idea how to change the situation. I don’t know what I would have done without your daily support and guidance. It was invaluable.

Even though I have a strong medical background, it would have been difficult to understand all the inner workings of the ICU by myself. You taught me how to read all the important instruments that were keeping my sister alive. It was very apparent her care and my family were being manipulated in order to get the outcome they wanted.

You and your staff — and thank you to my staff here, a big thank you to them — gave me the courage and moral support to stand up to the doctors who literally harassed and tried to intimidate me on a daily basis to make my sister a DNR. For those of you that don’t know what a DNR is, DNR stands for Do Not Resuscitate.

This started only a few days in, before her brain even had a chance to heal. I found the doctors would stop at nothing to attempt to get a DNR from me, even pitting my family against me since I was the only holdout of many people.

It was only after my sister’s discharge I found out that the nurse’s station had her driver’s license the entire time. She was listed as an organ donor. No wonder they wanted to make her a DNR.

I don’t know what I would have done without your invaluable guidance and that of your staff. No doubt you helped save my sister’s life. I can never thank you enough.

Best regards,
From, Cassidy.”

I remember talking to Cassidy and me and my team working with her as if it was yesterday. Her sister came into ICU and they were basically saying, “She should just die and donate organs, and that would be the end of that, because she will not survive, and if she survives, she won’t have any quality of life.” And here she is, probably about 12 or 18 months later — she’s back almost to baseline. Isn’t that amazing?

The biggest challenge for families in intensive care is 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.

This is exactly another example where you need help, because from the early days in ICU, Cassidy sensed something was very wrong when the doctors pushed hard for a DNR order just days after her sister’s brain injury, before she even had a chance to heal and recover. The pressure was relentless. Cassidy faced harassment, intimidation, and even attempts to turn her own family against her because she was the only one holding out.

If you’re in a similar situation, you can reach out to us because we can help you turn things around. We can help you turn around the seemingly impossible.

You can just have a look at our testimonial section.   and our podcast section where we’ve done client interviews so you can see how many lives we’ve saved with our consulting and advocacy.

And even though Cassidy had a strong medical background — I remember she was a medical coder in a hospital — she knew she needed help navigating the ICU system. With our daily guidance, she learned to interpret the vital signs and machines keeping her sister alive. She also learned how to counter the doctor’s arguments with facts and persistence, and how to buy her sister the time she needed to recover.

This is a perfect example of why families must push back when pressured to make premature end-of-life decisions in ICU. Critical illness is a marathon, not a sprint. The first few days rarely tell the story about a potential recovery.

So, if you and your family are in ICU and facing similar pressures, reach out now. You need to understand the real facts, the hidden agendas, and your rights as a patient advocate before it’s too late.

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.