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Today, I have more news why you need to avoid LTAC (Long-term Acute Care) in the U.S. if your loved one is critically ill in intensive care with the tracheostomy and the ventilator. If you want those news, stay tuned.

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

So, this morning, I was talking to a lady who has her 78-year-old dad in an LTAC facility in the U.S., and her dad is ventilated with a tracheostomy. He’s got a history of COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). At home, he was on BIPAP (Bilevel positive Airway pressure), then unfortunately fell and he fractured his arm, and then he ended up in a hospital after surgery, and he could not manage his own BIPAP. He wasn’t in intensive care, but because he couldn’t manage his own BIPAP, he was dependent on hospital staff to put on his BIPAP outside of intensive care, that is an issue in and of itself, because she said, “They didn’t use his BIPAP overnight, which is why he ended up with CO2 (carbon dioxide) retention, where he ended up intubated and why he then ended up on a ventilator, initially with a breathing tube, in ICU that led to a tracheostomy eventually.” Once the tracheostomy was done, she said she was forced to send her dad to an LTAC.

Now, you know what I’ve got to say about that. No one can force you to go to an LTAC and we have proven that over and over again, that with our consulting and advocacy here at intensivecarehotline.com, that our clients don’t go to LTAC. They don’t go to LTAC without consulting and advocacy.

So, obviously, this is another client who found out too late about our service, which is a shame, but it’s not too late. We can still help this client, but it just goes to illustrate, once again, that once your loved one is critically ill in intensive in and the U.S., has a ventilator, has a tracheostomy, never ever agree to let your loved one go to LTAC because it’s just an absolute disaster area.

Now, following on from there, he then ended up in LTAC with the PEG (Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy) (226) tube as well, and tracheostomy and ventilator. The family was promised they would do physical therapy, they would get him out of bed, and they would try and start weaning him off the ventilator. Nothing could be further from the truth.

This is what I’ve said on this blog here for years, for over a decade now, that LTACs are not equipped, are not skilled enough to wean ventilated and tracheostomy patients off the ventilator and the tracheostomy. They simply don’t have it, and it comes to light over and over again. You just got to look up the online reviews on LTACs and you will find that the online reviews are absolutely horrific. And because they are so horrific, you shouldn’t let your loved one go to an LTAC to begin with because too many casualties have come out of patients going to LTAC and never to leave LTAC alive.

Hopefully, this is not too late, when, once we start working with this client, but she also described that her father is basically tied down to a bed and is tied to a bed with shackles. This sounds like scenes out of a horror movie and that’s unfortunately, what’s happening in 2025 in some LTACs in the United States. It is absolutely heartbreaking.

But the good news is there’s help at hand. We have always managed to keep our clients in the intensive care unit until they are weaned off the ventilator. You can verify that on our testimonial section, or you can also verify it on our intensivecarehotline.com podcast, where we have done client interviews because we understand intensive care inside out.

But you need to get help right from the start. You need to get help when your loved one is being admitted to hospital. This lady knew that her father wasn’t getting the BIPAP because there’s a device on the BIPAP where it’s actually showing when the BIPAP was on and when it wasn’t on and despite the hospitals, the hospital trying to reassure this lady that her dad was getting the BIPAP overnight, she could find the evidence in the device that he never had the BIPAP.

This is why I’m saying that anyone on a ventilator with or without a tracheostomy needs to be looked after by intensive care nursing staff because the ward staff wouldn’t have a clue why BIPAP is even applied in the first place. Very scary stuff.

So, moving on, now the LTAC wants to send her that to a skilled nursing facility. So, going from bad to worse, can you imagine? Going from an LTAC, which is not even the better version of a nursing home, going now to a skilled nursing facility. So, it’s going from bad to worse.

My advice was, from what I understand about her dad, she needs to send him back to intensive care. She should just call an ambulance and send him back to intensive care.

But what really needs to happen there on an advocacy level, we look at the medical records and then we can write our second opinion and say, “Look, this is why this patient needs to go back to an ICU and why he should not be in LTAC.” That is our next step here.

So, I have worked in critical care nursing for 25 years in 3 different countries, where I worked as a nurse manager for over 5 years, and 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 as a team for our clients in intensive care and critical care. You can verify that we have saved many lives for our clients in intensive care on our testimonial section at intensivecarehotline.com and you can verify it on our intensivecarehotline.com podcast, where we have done client interviews because I know that our advice is absolutely life changing.

Because our advice is absolutely life changing, that is why we have helped hundreds and hundreds of members and clients over the years. You can join a growing number of members and clients that we have helped by contacting us here at intensivecarehotline.com.

That’s why I 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 on your behalf with you. I handhold you through this once in a lifetime situation that you simply can’t afford to get wrong. When I talk to doctors and nurses directly, I also 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.

We also have a membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care. 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 e-books and 21 videos that I’ve personally written and recorded. All of this information, plus the access to me and my team, will help you to make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence.

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.

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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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