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Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: The UK NHS (National Health Service) Wants to Withdraw Life Support on My 46-Year-Old Brother Without Family Consent! Help!

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

So, today’s tip is about a client that I was talking to a couple of days ago, she has her 46-year-old brother in ICU in the U.K. He’s been there for a few weeks, and he ended up with a tracheostomy earlier in the week because he couldn’t be weaned off the ventilator. She thought that everything was on the right track to get him weaned off the ventilator, and buy him time because that’s what tracheostomy often do, they just give patients more time to wean off the ventilator. That’s a good thing.

And then after a couple of days of having done the tracheostomy, the ICU team basically approached her and said, “Well, it’s not working and we think we should just withdraw treatment and let your brother die because he won’t have any quality of life if he survives and it won’t be in his interest to survive anyway because he won’t have any quality of life ” Quality of life is just a perception, it’s just that.

This is obviously in the U.K., and the U.K. is the worst out of all English-speaking countries as far as I can see with our consulting and advocacy. When it comes to patients and family rights, they just think they can kill people at the drop of a hand and without consulting with anyone. And she asked me, what should she do? Well, I said to her, “Well, make a complaint. This is a life-or-death situation. It’s very unethical, it’s very immoral.”

But, given that we all know that the U.K., the NHS (National Health Service) that has killed many children in recent years, including the likes of Alfie Evans, Charlie Gard, and many others, a life doesn’t really count within the NHS and within the U.K. They’ve got the NHS aligned with the courts. The courts often sign off on killing children and adults. It’s an absolute atrocity in my eyes and I can’t believe that not more doctors and nurses in the U.K. speak up about that, that the Church of England doesn’t speak up about that. It’s atrocious and in any case, we have helped many clients in the U.K. to save their loved one’s lives with our advocacy. But in any case, what we advise the client is to make a complaint to hospital executive.

Also given her brother who is just 46 years of age and just had a tracheostomy, what a waste of resources. Where’s the clinical judgment from the intensive care team? If they think, “Oh, tracheostomy wouldn’t be the right thing to do.” You have to question on a number of levels here. Also, he’s not on any inotropes or vasopressors. So, withdrawing treatment prematurely could be perceived as murder, could be perceived as euthanasia, and that’s all-illegal stuff that’s going on.

So, our advice in a situation like that is make some noise, and don’t put up with it and that is often all that is needed for a 46-year-old man. The only thing that should be happening is to continue treatment unless there is an advanced care directive that states otherwise, but that is not the case, the lady said that her brother wants to live, and he wants to have everything done. It’s just this limited mindset and this perception of limited resources so that we no longer value someone’s life and it’s just not good enough.

So, in a situation like that, we would help our clients to write a letter to a hospital executive. We would also advise the family to go to the media. This is something the general public needs to know about and the good news is, this is something that can be turned around.

The other thing that the lady said is that her brother is getting more awake now that he had a tracheostomy. Well, talk to the client, talk to the patient. They’re really cowards, the ICU team there. They’re really cowards of not talking to a patient, asking the patient what he wants. Let him wake up, there’s nothing wrong with his brain and ask him. Don’t be a coward about it and just move someone to palliative care without talking to the patient directly, especially since the brain is intact. He just needs to wake up from a prolonged induced coma.

So, there’s a number of things that can be done. The withdrawal of treatment, often it is just an empty threat; it’s just to stay in control of the narrative. So, what I mean by that is intensive care teams are negative by default, and they’re creating this doom and gloom narrative where they say, “Oh, your loved one shouldn’t leave because they wouldn’t have any quality of life.”

Again, what is quality of life? It’s a perception. It’s not for anyone to judge what anyone’s quality of life should be like. It is up to the individual to say, “Yup, I’m ok with living. Maybe not the quality of life that I had before, but I’m ok with living.” And that should be the ultimate judgment here, what the patient wants and what the family wants, not what the intensive care wants and thinks of what’s possible, what’s not possible, what would I want; it’s not about that. It is about the individual and it is about providing holistic care which takes into consideration what patients and families want, not taking into consideration what the National Health Service in the U.K. wants, which is more and more towards wanting to end people’s life prematurely to stay in control of potentially population control.

I am not a conspiracy theorist here, but the signs are there. With the work that we are doing that there’s just no value of human life, in some cases, and it’s just not acceptable and people need to speak up about it. It’s as simple as that.

So, that is my quick tip for today.

So, don’t be discouraged if intensive care teams, they want to tell you they want to withdraw treatment. It’s just that they tell you that and you challenge it successfully. Don’t be discouraged, make noise, and reach out to us. We can also broadcast your case. We can get you on a podcast, raise alertness that this is what’s happening, and put pressure on from there. Go to the media. Don’t be silent, this is a life-or-death situation.

A hospital ending someone’s life prematurely without consent from a patient or a family like it happens in the U.K. now all the time, could be perceived as murder, could be perceived as euthanasia, and both are illegal; keep that in mind. Intensive care teams are very good to pretend that they can do whatever they like, but they can’t. You just need to challenge them and make sure you exercise your rights.

That is my quick tip for today.

I have worked in critical care for nearly 25 years in three different countries where I also worked as a nurse manager for over 5 years. I’ve been consulting and advocating for families in intensive care here at intensivecarehotline.com since 2013. We have saved many lives as part of our consulting and advocacy. You can verify that on our testimonial at intensivecarehotline.com or have a look at our podcast section at intensivecarehotline.com where we interviewed some of our clients.

That’s also why we created a membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care where you can become a member of our membership at intensivecarehotline.com when you click on the membership link, or 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 personally wrote and recorded to help you steer this incredibly difficult environment that is intensive care, helping you to make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, influence, making sure your loved one gets best care and treatment.

I also offer one-on-one consulting and advocacy over the phone, Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp, whichever medium works best for you. I talk to you and your families directly. I talk to doctors and nurses directly and I ask all the questions that you haven’t even considered asking but must be asked when you have a loved one in intensive care and that will change the dynamics in your favor. Once the intensive care team knows you have someone on your team that understands intensive care inside out just as much as they do. But we will help you manage intensive care team so they don’t manage you, helping you to stay two steps ahead of them, making sure you make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence, making sure your loved one gets best care and treatment.

I also represent you in family meetings with intensive care teams.

We also offer medical record reviews in real time so that you can get a second opinion in real time. We also offer 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 send us an email to support@intensivecarehotline.com.

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Thank you for watching.

This is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com and I will talk to you in a few days.

Take care for now.