Hi, it’s 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 you’re not a doctor or a nurse in Intensive Care!

In last week’s episode I answered another question from our readers and the question was

How Long Can a Breathing Tube or Endotracheal Tube Stay In in Intensive Care? Live stream!

You can check out last week’s question by clicking on the link here.

In this week’s blog, I am here to share with you a testimonial from one of my clients as part of my one on one advocacy and consultancy. Today’s testimonial is about the meaningful recovery of a valued client’s brother- in- law. Tara’s brother- in- law tested positive for COVID and ended up with COVID ARDS. He was once ventilated, placed on ECMO and was pushed against withdrawing life support in intensive care. His family was challenged between keeping him in ICU and bringing him home with a tracheostomy.  The patient is now home and has recovered.

Tara’s Testimonial: “My Brother-in-law is Now Home After 14 weeks of Being on a Life Support in the ICU due to COVID ARDS. Thank you Patrik for the Help & Encouragement You Give to Everyone Who Has Loved Ones in ICU!”

So today, I want to read out a testimonial from Tara.

We have been working with Tara over the last few weeks. And she had her brother-in-law in intensive care and we were working with her and her sister. Her brother-in-law was very sick in intensive care after COVID  ARDS . He ended up in ICU with COVID ARDS, then ended up very critically ill. He was proned initially, then ended up on ECMO, and ultimately survived his ordeal in ICU. He’s now back home, after couple of months in ICU, a very successful story.

And I just want to read out what Tara has to say.

Hi Patrik,

I hope you’re doing well. I wanted to text and give you an update as it has been several weeks since we last spoke. We are extremely grateful and happy to report that my brother-in-law, Peter, is now home. He was discharged last week after about three and a half months in the hospital. You may remember the first time I called you. Our main concern was that the doctors in ICU were talking about removing life support against our wishes. I began searching for some information online about a patient’s family’s rights were, then I found your website. I was very impressed with all the information you had about advocating for patients in ICU and dealing with the negative culture.

I actually had never heard of a patient advocate before. I first learned the word advocate many years ago as a child, when reading the Bible, where it says we have an advocate to the Father through Jesus. That is the first thing I always think of when I hear the word advocate and I must say that He was our main source of hope and strength throughout this whole ordeal.

My sister showed incredible strength and refused to believe all the negativity she heard constantly. She had strong faith that her husband was going to make it and was there with him every single day, holding his hand, praying, speaking positively to him, playing uplifting music, and et cetera. After one month on ECMO, things were not looking good. The doctors said that his lungs were fibrous and were basically bricks and not functioning at all.

However, that weekend we received some encouragement as another advocate stepped up, a lifelong friend and pastor also named Patrick. He called and asked if he could come pray for Peter and said, he knew that his lungs would be healed. He drove seven hours to come visit and pray and spend time with him and talked to his doctors. They asked him to please explain to our family that Peter was not going to make it. Patrick told them that wasn’t the reason he was there, and explained the reason my sister was not giving up was because she believed in miracles. I think they thought she was either in denial or did not understand the gravity of his condition.

That next week was the most challenging yet. The doctor said she was surprised he had survived the night and would be expiring within a few days. By the end of that week, his oxygen levels had dropped into the upper 70s and low 80s.

On Friday, they replaced the oxygenators on the ECMO machine, hoping to bring up the oxygen levels, but it did not help. Then in the middle of the night, early Saturday morning, something miraculous happened! When my sister arrived that morning, everyone was excitedly exclaiming that his lungs had started working! His tidal volumes until then had been in the 70s, and they suddenly jumped to the upper 200s and his oxygen levels jumped up to 95%. From that day forward, there were improvements every day and they began weaning off the ECMO. After 50 days, he was totally taken off of ECMO. Within three weeks after that, he was off the ventilator. He’s now feeling great and he’s doing physical therapy at home to regain his strength.

Patrik, my sister and I want to thank you for all your help, information and advice. From the beginning, your encouragement to ignore the negativity in ICU. And you, simply stating that they couldn’t disconnect the life support against our wishes was very reassuring. We were very grateful for your input on some of the difficult decisions that had to be made such as whether or not to do a tracheostomy while on ECMO. Also the advice not to let the hospital push to transfer to the LTAC was very valuable! We really appreciated your straightforward and simple approach to everything and that you were always available with a quick response anytime of the day. Most of all, thank you for the encouragement you give to everyone who has loved ones in ICU. As you know well, staying positive can be a challenge when there is so much hopelessness surrounding you. I believe not giving up hope and staying strong for a loved one can be crucial when they are in such a helpless state. Below is the photo. My sister asked me to share of Peter at his welcome home celebration this week. Thanks again for everything.

Best regards,

Tara

Hi Tara,

Well, Tara, thank you so much for sharing this with me and my team. We are forever grateful that we were able to help you, your sister, and most of all, your brother in law. And you’ve sent me a picture that I won’t share of course online, but the picture is amazing. You know, he sits there at home and he’s having a piece of cake. As if his journey was a piece of cake by no means it wasn’t. But it’s great. It’s great to hear that. And you’ve really made me, and my team’s day that we were able to help you with this situation. And as I always say, you got to completely ignore the negativity of the intensive care team. And it shows again that, the research clearly says that over 90% of intensive care patients survive, and it has nothing to do with, whether they are on ECMO or they have ARDS, over 90% of intensive care patients survive.

Now that doesn’t talk about quality of life. It means people survive and they go on to a hospital ward. They may go home with Intensive Care at Home. They may do other things, but the bottom line is, they survive. And, and only then can you take the next steps once they’re out of intensive care. And it, again goes to show, you got to completely ignore the doom and gloom and the negativity, and you got to walk your own path. You can never give in with withdrawing life support with palliative care. I mean, if you do that, if you give in, people will be dead and there is no return from that. So you always have to give it a shot. You always have to know what to ask for, know what to look for, and stay strong mentally, which is easier said than done. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying it’s easy, staying strong mentally, but it is important. And it’s often the only thing you can control. The only thing you can control is how you react to the things around you. That is the only thing you can control, but take full control of that.

It also ties right in with another video that I just made a couple of days ago, where we were almost in a similar situation with another client where the intensive care team wanted to withdraw life support. They did not want to do a tracheostomy. We pushed with the family for a tracheostomy, and the patient has now survived intensive care and has left intensive care. Despite the intensive care team saying, that there is no chance of survival and that the client would pass away. And that was simply a false prediction. If the family had given in, the intensive care team would have started palliative care, with giving morphine, midazolam, and would have hastened death, which is also known as euthanasia. And euthanasia is simply illegal.

RECOMMENDED:

• 1:1 Email counselling and consulting with Patrik
   

• 7 days unlimited 1:1 phone consulting and advocacy
   

• Membership for families in Intensive Care
   

• 1:1 phone and email counselling and consulting with Patrik

So thank you again, Tara, for sharing this and for enlightening, our viewers and our readers here with this amazing story. The moral of the story is really never give up. Don’t buy into any negativity, walk your own path, seek professional advice, seek professional help from someone that understands intensive care inside out. And that’s what we do all day every day here at Intensive Care Hotline.