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Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: My Daughter’s Been in ICU for 6 Months. She Pulled Out Her Tracheostomy. Does It Need to Go Back In?

It’s Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com with another quick tip for families in intensive care.

So, I have an email today from Margie who says,

“Hi Patrik,

My daughter has brain cancer, and they put in a tracheostomy in her neck about 6 months ago which has some tissue growth that needs to be removed with a laser, so the tracheostomy can be removed and so she can talk again.

But due to her medical issues, she has pulled the tracheostomy out yesterday, and now the ICU wants to send her out of the hospital. She has been tied down in ICU for 6 months in the bed. She’s giving up because they only put her with male nurses, and she’s not comfortable with male nurses, so all her health is very poor at this particular ICU. Can you advise?

– Margie.”

Marie, I’m very sorry to hear about what your daughter here is going through, and what you are going through as a family.

Well, 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. That’s exactly what you are dealing with here. You don’t know what you don’t know.

I’m very surprised that you’ve been putting up with this for 6 months because you have been managed by the intensive care team instead of you managing them because that’s what we do here at intensivecarehotline.com. We help you to manage intensive care teams, so they don’t manage you or mismanage your loved one’s situation because that’s clearly what’s happening here.

It also sounds to me like you have no access to the medical records. You are completely flying blind here. Once again, you don’t know what you don’t know.

So, here is what you need to do.

First of all, it might be a blessing in disguise that she has the tracheostomy removed. Now, I don’t know exactly what laser surgery needs to be performed, so she can talk again and remove the tracheostomy, I don’t know, because you don’t seem to know because you don’t have access to the medical records, or maybe you haven’t asked the questions.

Most of all, you haven’t had a second opinion. You haven’t had a consultant or advocate by your side that can help you and handhold you through this one by one and can be your voice in all of this. Because if your daughter has been tied down for 6 months in bed and you’ve been putting up with it, you have to ask yourself the question, why you’ve been putting up with it and, your daughter probably has been neglected in all of this. The question is, why have you been putting up with it?

So, you got to take responsibility here as well, because with our clients, they get results. We get results for our clients because we know how to navigate the intensive care system. We know how to advocate. We know what questions to ask. We know all about patient and family’s rights, which you obviously have had no idea about. I can’t believe that you’ve been watching this for 6 months, your daughter being tied down to bed and you’ve been putting up with it?

So, first off, you need to make a complaint to a hospital executive about why she only has male nurses. It’s understandable that your daughter would be more comfortable with female nurses. That’s completely understandable. Again, we can help you make a formal complaint to the hospital executive level or to ICU hospital, medical or nursing level, because that’s not appropriate. It’s not appropriate.

It’s also not appropriate to send your daughter out without you knowing and understanding why they didn’t put the tracheostomy back in. Like I said, it might be a blessing in disguise but if she can’t talk, then she might need to have the tracheostomy reinserted and have the laser surgery first. Difficult to say without having a look at the medical records or by you and me talking to the doctors and nurses directly.

But I also know some of you watching this or reading this might be in a similar situation, you need to get help from Day 1. You have no idea how complex intensive care is and because you have no idea how complex intensive care is, that’s why you’re getting into these situations, because you don’t get help.

I’ve been working in critical care nursing for 25 years in 3 different countries, where I worked as a nurse manager for over 5 years in critical care nursing. I’ve been consulting and advocating for families in intensive care here since 2013 at intensivecarehotline.com. I can very confidently say that we have saved many lives with our consulting and advocacy. You can verify that on our testimonial section at intensivecarehotline.com and you can verify that on our intensivecarehotline.com podcast section where we have done client interviews.

It is, once again, no exaggeration when I say that we have saved many lives for our clients in intensive care with our consulting and advocacy, and I can say it is no exaggeration that our advice is absolutely life changing because we improve the lives for families and for patients in intensive care instantly with our consulting and advocacy, with our intensive care industry insights that you simply don’t have and that’s why you can join a growing number of members and clients that we have helped over the many years, over a decade now.

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 handhold you through this once in a lifetime situation that you simply cannot afford to get wrong.

You can see it in today’s email that Margie cannot afford to get that situation wrong. If her daughter has been tied down to a bed for 6 months, and she was watching it. How can any family put up with that? That’s unbelievable.

I also talk to doctors and nurses directly on your behalf or with you. You will see that I will ask all the questions that you haven’t even considered asking when your loved one is critically ill in intensive care, but those questions must be asked when your loved one is 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, where 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 that only our members have access to and all of that 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.

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, share the video with your friends and families.

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.

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