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Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: My Mother’s Been in ICU for 37 Days After Hypoxic Brain Injury. We’re Never Going to Give Up on Her!

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

So last week, I did a couple of videos with a title. The first one was, “Where’s the hurry to end a critically ill patient’s life in intensive care?” And the other one is, “Is it ethical to withdraw care on a 36-year-old patient because ICU perceives ‘no meaningful recovery’?”  I encourage you to check out those videos.

Now, in today’s video, I actually want to read out an email from a reader that ties right in with those videos and it’s telling me that obviously the content that I’m making is resonating with our audience and with families in intensive care, and whatever intensive care teams say, especially when it comes to real or perceived end of life situations isn’t resonating. So, intensive care teams should be paying attention.

Let me read out the email from Leo who says,

“Hi Patrik,

My mom suffered from hypoxia and brain injury. She has been in ICU for 37 days now. She barely responds to commands and barely recognizes her surroundings and people around her. She cannot speak and barely controlling body movements. The doctors say her condition will last long, months to years, and unknown when she will recover or even be able to leave the ICU. She barely gives emotional face expressions like happiness, sadness and pain. When we are around, she seems to be smiling and happily moving her head.

We will never leave her side or give up on her. I could say this event has been the worst and toughest experience in my life. She has always been very lovely and admirable person for everyone. All of a sudden, she’s gone. Though we’re having faith and patience and praying for her to hopefully recover soon.”

Thank you, Leo, for sending that email.

It’s interesting, obviously, what families in intensive care say. It’s good that the intensive care team isn’t sort of pushing you towards end of life by the sounds of things. It doesn’t sound to me like they are overly negative. The bottom line is though, we’re getting multiple phone calls every week from families in intensive care all around the world where in similar situations, the Intensive care team is wanting to push for end of life saying, “Well, even if your mom survives, she won’t have any ‘quality of life’ and that it’s cruel to keep treating.” It’s not up to intensive care teams to make that decision. It’s a faith-based decision. It’s an ethical decision. It’s a moral decision.

Intensive care teams need to stop playing on moral high ground because their job is to treat patients and accommodate patients and their families according to their wishes, their beliefs, their culture and so forth. Often, intensive care teams make decisions based on their bed status, on finances, on staffing levels. That’s why they often want to withdraw treatment because they don’t have enough bed spaces, they don’t have enough staff.

I’ve worked in critical care nursing for nearly 25 years in three different countries where I worked as a nurse manager for over 5 years where I’ve been consulting and advocating for families in intensive care since 2013 here at intensivecarehotline.com. We’ve been saving many lives with our consulting and advocacy. You can verify that if you go to our testimonial section at intensivecarehotline.com, or if you go to our intensivecarehotline.com podcast section where we’ve done some client interviews. We are the voice for families in intensive care here at intensivecarehotline.com. We have helped hundreds of clients and members here at intensivecarehotline.com improving their lives instantly.

Now, the other thing is, if your mom has been in ICU for 37 days now, and if her condition is lasting like this, have you considered Intensive Care at Home? I encourage you to check out intensivecareathome.com as an alternative to a long-term stay in intensive care. So, go and have a look there.

It’s good that people are writing in with their thoughts and intensive care teams, once again, need to pay attention to what their customers say at the end of the day. That’s what they are, they are their customers, and they need to pay attention, and move away from prematurely ending lives and trying to play God, that is just highly inappropriate.

Because we get so many families in intensive care writing into us, calling us, that’s why we created a membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care. You can become a member; you can join the long list of members; we’ve had hundreds of members in our membership area. Also, we’ve helped hundreds of clients over the years to improve their life instantly when they have a loved one in intensive care. We have saved many lives. So, go to intensivecarehotline.com, click on the membership link or go to intensivecaresupport.org if you want to become a member.

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, 21 videos that I have personally written and recorded, and that will help you to make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence so that you can influence decision making fast making sure your loved one gets best care and treatment always.

I also do one-on-one consulting over the phone, Zoom, Skype, WhatsApp, Telegram, 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 can’t afford to get wrong. I also 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. In essence, I handhold you through this once in a lifetime situation that you simply can’t afford to get wrong.

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 the intensivecarehotline.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website or 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, and share the video with your friends and families.

I also do a weekly YouTube live where I answer your questions live on the show and you will get notification for the YouTube live if you are a subscriber to my email newsletter or if you are a subscriber to my YouTube channel. You can become a subscriber to my 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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