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Today’s article is about, “Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: My 61 Yr Old Dad Died in ICU With Pneumonia After <48 Hours of Admission, Could He Have Been Saved?”

You may also watch the video here on our website https://intensivecarehotline.com/blog/quick-tip-for-families-in-intensive-care-my-61-yr-old-dad-died-in-icu-with-pneumonia-after/ or you can continue reading the article below.

Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: My 61 Yr Old Dad Died in ICU With Pneumonia After <48 Hours of Admission, Could He Have Been Saved?
 

If you want to know how to take action when your loved one is critically ill in intensive care, instead of asking for closure once your loved one has passed away because you have not taken any action, stay tuned. I’ve got news for you today.

I’ve got an email from Catalina who says,

“Hi Patrik,

I’m reaching out for closure. I’m still in the process of requesting my father’s medical records, which I can send over as soon as I have them. I know they won’t change that my father is gone but I’m struggling to come to terms with my decision to have placed my father on comfort care.”

By the way, my is name is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com and this is another quick tip for families in intensive care.

So, Catalina continues,

“My father was admitted to the ICU on February 7th at 8:00 a.m. He was 61 years old with a history of diabetes and mental illness. He was diagnosed with H1N1, which is the swine flu pneumonia, and was found to have two secondary bacterial infections in his lungs and blood, Pseudomonas and Staphylococcus. He went into septic shock, and his kidneys were failing.  Moreover, he was intubated and on a ventilator. 

I flew out to see my father on February 8th, and I arrived at about 6:00am. My father was mottling on his thighs with purple blue coloring on his feet, hands, ears, and face. He was very cold to the touch. The doctors informed me he was not showing signs of reflexes, that he was on the highest ventilator settings. It was adjusted the night before to the highest settings. They informed me his fever, blood pressure, etc., had not changed despite the interventions. They told me they would not leave the interventions running for him to the 9th, and that they would allow me to decide when to place him on comfort care. 

I did feel that the ICU team, for the most part, was very responsive to our family, answering our questions to the best of their ability. But when I look back on it now, I feel like they were telling me I didn’t have a choice about transitioning to comfort care. I just had a choice about when. 

My gut told me my father was dying based on what I could see, maybe I’m just struggling to accept that fact. But I feel guilty that I did a “euthanasia”, is stated on your website without fully knowing. That that’s what comfort care was or meant, and that I didn’t ask enough questions. I appreciate your support.”

Like I always say, you need to take action on Day 1 because most families in intensive care completely underestimate having a loved one critically ill in intensive care. What you see is often not what you get in intensive care. That’s number one. Number two, you are in a once in a lifetime situation that you simply cannot afford to get wrong. Number three, one question that families in intensive care always need to ask themselves is, where’s the hurry to kill someone? Where’s the urgency? 

Also, keep in mind that approximately 90% of intensive care patients survive. So, why would your dad be 1 out of 10 if the odds are in his favor? It also doesn’t sound to me like you’ve sought a second opinion, or it doesn’t sound to me like you’ve sought access to medical records to get a second opinion. You were just basically flying blind, and you just believed everything they were presenting to you without checking whether it’s real or perceived, which leads me to my next point.

Was it a real or a perceived end of life situation? What’s the difference? I’m glad you asked. A real end of life situation in intensive care is that no treatment, no surgery, no medications, no equipment, no nothing will be able to save your critically ill loved one’s life. That is a real end of life situation. A perceived end of life situation is that it’s just a perception and that your loved one may actually live if they give it a good shot with all treatments being available. 

Now, I don’t know whether all treatment was made available for your dad or not, but one thing is for sure, if you are in a life-or-death situation, why would you not question everything that you’re seeing? 

One of my mentors always told me, question everything and ask better questions. I don’t understand why families in intensive care. I don’t understand that they’re in the life-or-death situation, and why they leave no stone unturned. I understand no one sitting at home wondering and thinking, “Oh, if my family member goes into intensive care next week, what am I going to do?” Nobody would be thinking that, I get that. Your gut feeling might have been right, that it was a real end of life situation, but how would you have known? 

Like I said, one question that families in intensive care always need to ask themselves is, especially when they’re being confronted with a situation where the intensive care team says, “The only option here is comfort care or withdrawal of treatment, because it won’t be in the “best interest” of your family member to live or it won’t be “in the best interest” of your family member to pull through, because then they won’t have any “quality of life”.” What is quality of life? It’s a perception.

It is very important that you get professional help right from the start. Let’s call it for what it is in this situation. Now, families are having second thoughts, and then it’s too late. 

The other thing that you need to understand is from an intensive care team perspective, their worst-case scenario is to look after someone indefinitely with an uncertain outcome. That is their worst-case scenario, and your dad might have fitted that criterion. I don’t know. I don’t have enough information. But the bottom line is you didn’t question.

We have saved so many lives here at intensivecarehotline.com. We have saved so many lives, and I will tell you in a minute how to verify that. Our advice here is absolutely life changing, absolutely life changing. Rather than seeking closure, you need to take action when your loved one is in intensive care. You need a second opinion, and you need someone on your team that understands intensive care inside out, just as much as the intensive care team there understands the intensive care inside out.

One of the reasons I make these videos is simply to help families in intensive care. You also need to grab the help and not come when it’s too late.

We can do a medical record reviews for sure, and we’ll probably find some medical negligence. Maybe we won’t, but the reality is, most of the time, we do find medical negligence when we do medical record reviews. That’s just the sad reality. You need to go into a situation like this with your eyes wide open. You only have one dad, you only have one mom, you only have one spouse. You just need to go in with your eyes wide open.

I have worked in critical care and nursing for 25 years in 3 different countries where I worked as a nurse manager for over 5 years, and where I’ve been consulting and advocating for families in intensive care since 2013 here at intensivecarehotline.com. I can confidently, confidently say that we have saved many lives for our clients in intensive care. You can verify that on our testimonial section at intensivecarehotline.com and you can verify it on our intensivecarehotline.com podcast section where we have done client interviews who will verify in interviews, how we help them to save their loved one’s lives. We most likely would have saved your dad’s life as well, at least we would have bought you some time to say goodbye, come to terms with things, that is the very least we could have done because we get results. Unlike families in intensive care who don’t even think about that managing intensive care teams is an option, that’s what we do here, we help you manage intensive care teams, so they don’t manage you or we manage them on your behalf. 

I know that’s a big bold statement to make but have a look at our testimonial section. Have a look at our podcast section. It is possible. You just need to do it. Your loved one’s life depends on it. It absolutely depends on it. Our advice here is absolutely life changing, quite literally, actually, very literally. You can join a growing number of hundreds and hundreds of members and clients that we helped over the years to improve their lives instantly, to make informed decisions, to have peace of mind, control, power, and influence, making sure your loved one gets best care and treatment always. 

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.  I also talk to doctors and nurses directly. When I talk to doctors and nurses directly on your behalf or with you, I ask all the questions that you haven’t even considered asking. 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.

We also do medical record reviews in real time so that you can get a second opinion in real time. This could have been lifesaving for Catalina. We also do medical record reviews after intensive care if you have unanswered questions, if you need closure, or if you simply are suspecting medical negligence. 

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 intensivecarehotline.com, 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 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 support@intensivecarehotline.com 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, share this 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’re a subscriber to my YouTube channel, or if you’re a subscriber to my intensivecarehotline.com 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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