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Today’s article is about, “Quick Tip for Families in
Families in Intensive Care: 69-Year-Old Mom After Cardiac Arrest isn't Waking Up, with Seizures! Brain MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) & EEG (Electroencephalogram) are Normal, Help!"
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Quick Tip for Families in Families in Intensive Care: 69-Year-Old Mom After Cardiac Arrest isn't Waking Up, with Seizures! Brain MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) & EEG (Electroencephalogram) are Normal,
Help!
Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com with another quick tip for families in intensive care.
So today, I have an email from Kaye who says,
“Hi Patrik,
My 69-year-old mother was already a patient in the hospital and was found by a nurse unresponsive, in cardiac arrest. The MRI is showing no damage to the brain nor in the EEG. She has been having the jerking movements and is on a few anti-seizure medications as well as sedation. I would like some input from you as I feel I’m not getting the best advice from
the doctors. What are your thoughts?”
Well, that’s a great question, Kaye, and I’m very sorry to hear about your mom’s situation.
Look, I’ve seen many of those situations when I was a nurse at the bedside in ICU. I worked in critical care for nearly 25 years in three different countries where I
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.
I can safely say we’ve saved many lives with our consulting and advocacy, and you can verify that on our testimonial section as well as on our podcast section where we’ve done interviews with clients where we saved their loved ones’ lives, in any case.
So, I looked after hundreds if not thousands of critically ill patients in intensive care. I’ve seen similar situations like your mom many times. Patients coming in after cardiac arrest, they are in an induced coma, they are often in cooling therapy for about 24 to 48 hours to protect the brain, to protect all other organs.
They’re having jerking movements and they’re having anti-seizure medications and sedation and then you slowly wake them up. They may then develop seizures, they may have more jerking movements, and it’s often touch and go until those patients can be woken up, if they can be woken up at all.
Sometimes it can take a long time, and you may have to be very patient. You have to keep in
mind even though the MRI shows no brain damage, you have to keep in mind your mom is critically ill, and her body took a massive hit. You got to give her time to wake up and that could be weeks, could potentially be months. Who knows? No one has a crystal ball.
But the biggest challenge here is to be patient and to give it time and not to be negative. If she doesn’t wake up, there’s plenty of time
to talk about end of life if that’s where this might be going. But keep in mind, the overwhelming majority of patients in intensive care actually survive. So, the odds are in your mom’s favor.
If she does survive, will she have the same quality of life than she had before? I don’t know. Nobody knows. But one thing is for sure, if you don’t try and if you’re not staying positive, the odds will definitely be against your mom and will be against your mom’s favor.
So, you got to be patient. You got to be positive. You got to give her the time she needs. You
mentioned it’s been a few days now for your mom and I know it probably sounds or it feels like an eternity to you, but it’s not a long time.
Sometimes clients and prospective clients come to us, and they say, “Look, my mom, my dad, whoever has been in ICU for three or four days.” It’s not a long time. I argue even three or four weeks in ICU is not a long time. You have to be very patient
here.
You should be very positive because the MRI shows no damage. So, that means CPR/cardiopulmonary
resuscitation for the cardiac arrest must have been effective. After all, she had it in a hospital. So, she had the code blue team come running and doing all the right things. So, that’s very positive thing. Also, so your mom is only 69 that’s not very old.
So, that is my quick tip in this situation.
Because we’re getting so many questions from families in intensive care all over the world, this is actually a question that came in in January, we’re now at the beginning of May. So, that’s how many questions we’re getting here. I’m almost doing daily videos.
The quickest way for you to get your questions answered is if you go to
intensivecarehotline.com, and if you become a member of our membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care. You can go to intensivecarehotline.com, 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, via email and in a membership area we answer all questions intensive care related.
In the membership, you also have access to 21 e-books and 21 videos that are specifically written and recorded for families in intensive care to navigate this incredibly difficult environment that is intensive
care. These videos and e-books will help you to make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence, helping you 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. When I talk to doctors and nurses directly, I ask all the questions that you haven’t even considered asking, but you must ask when you have a loved one in intensive care. I, once again, make 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 team teams that have been in hundreds of them.
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.
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, share the video with your friends and families.
I also do a weekly YouTube live where I answer your questions live on the show. If you are a subscriber of my YouTube channel, you get a notification for that.
Thanks for watching.
This is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com and I will talk to you in a few days.
Take care for now.
