Hi, it's Patrik Hutzel from INTENSIVECAREHOTLINE.COM , where we instantly improve the
lives of Families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care, so that you can 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 BLOG I've shown you "The perfect excuse why Families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care have no PEACE OF MIND, control,
power& influence!"
You can check out last week's BLOG by clicking on the link here!
In this week's BLOG I want to show you
Why the often STRICTLY ACADEMIC VIEW of the Intensive Care team might HOLD YOU BACK from PEACE OF MIND, control, power and influence!
When you and your
Family are challenged with this "ONCE IN A LIFETIME" situation of having a loved one critically ill in Intensive Care and when you and your Family feel and think that you are in a situation where you are frustrated, in fear,
you are stressed, overwhelmed and you have no PEACE OF MIND, control, power and influence, you must know that you are not alone!
99% of Families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care know and feel like they have
no PEACE OF MIND, control, power and influence and especially if you and your Family are facing those inevitable challenges when your critically ill loved one is either
- very
unstable and in a very critical condition
- in a life threatening situation
- in Intensive Care for long-term treatments and long-term stays
- having a severe(traumatic) head or brain
injury
- approaching their end of life in Intensive Care
you know exactly what I'm talking about here, because after I have literally worked with thousands of critically ill Patients and their Families in more
than 15 years Intensive Care nursing in three different countries, I have effectively dealt with, supported, counselled and guided Families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care through this "ONCE IN A LIFETIME" challenge over and over again!
Your loved one's fate and destiny appears to be in the Intensive Care team's hands...
And look, the reality and the
fact of the matter is that if you, your Family and your critically ill loved one are dealing with one of those massive ONCE IN A LIFETIME challenges where your critically ill loved one is one of those big challenging
situations they can ever go through in Intensive Care, you know that you really have no idea where you should be putting your efforts towards and you really don't know what questions you need to ask and worst of all, you really have no PEACE OF MIND, control, power and influence!
Even worse, you and your Family feel like the Intensive Care team is talking over you, rather than entering into a genuine dialogue with you, the Intensive Care team maybe very vague in their communications with you and you can literally feel that your loved
one's fate and destiny appears to be in the Intensive Care team's hands. PEACE OF MIND, control, power and influence for you and your Family seem to be terms that are a Million miles away!
Even worse, during those challenging, frustrating, difficult and often heartbreaking experiences where your critically ill loved one is either
- very unstable and in a very critical condition
- in a life threatening situation
- in Intensive Care for long-term treatments and long-term stays
- having a severe(traumatic) head or brain injury
- approaching their end of life in Intensive Care
the Intensive Care team seems to be using terms, words and expressions that are very clinical, very academic, they may even sound threatening and at the end of the day they are using their academic jargon that can be rather intimidating for Families
of critically ill Patients!
The Intensive Care team's jargon and academic view is used to "cement" their positioning
After all, the members of the Intensive
Care team must be very smart, very accomplished and they must know what they are doing!?!?
Isn't that what society has wrongly conditioned us for centuries, that doctors must know what's best? Isn't that what we are meant to believe?
But I also bet that deep down you and your Family don't want to be kept at arm's length! You and your Family don't want to be at the mercy of the Intensive Care team during one of those challenging, frustrating and ONCE IN A LIFETIME situations when your loved one is critically ill in Intensive Care!
What you and your Family don't know is that most decisions in Intensive Care are made "BEHIND THE
SCENES", BEHIND CLOSED DOORS!
The positioning of your critically ill loved one's diagnosis and prognosis during one of those challenging and ONCE IN A LIFETIME situations that I mentioned before, as well as the treatment and the care that your critically ill loved one is receiving or not receiving is a direct result from what's happening "BEHIND THE SCENES" in Intensive Care! It's basically a direct by-product from the intrigue, the dynamics, the power play, the psychology and the hidden agendas from the Intensive Care team!
You are involved in a high stakes game and only the Intensive Care team knows how to play!
Intensive Care is a multi- Billion $$$ Dollar per year Industry,
Intensive Care beds tend to be in high demand and very expensive and the bottom line is that you and your Family are involved in a high stakes game and you didn't see it coming!
You see, because you have found yourself in such challenging, dramatic, frustrating and ONCE IN A LIFETIME circumstances, the Intensive Care team has no intentions to relinquish any control, power and influence to you. The stakes are too high for the Intensive Care team,
period!
The problem is that the stakes are even higher for you, for your Family and for your critically ill loved one! After all the very life, the very well being and the very recovery of your critically ill loved one are in the Intensive Care team's hands, or at least that's what you think and that's how it's being framed and
positioned by the Intensive Care team!
The reality and the fact of the matter is however that the Intensive Care team loves to use their strictly academic views as a weapon and
positioning tool whilst you r loved one is critically ill in Intensive Care! It's not only a weapon for positioning, for power and for perceived superiority, it's also a weapon used by the Intensive Care team so that you and your Family don't get to see what's happening "BEHIND THE
SCENES" and BEHIND CLOSED DOORS in Intensive Care!
Money talks "BEHIND CLOSED DOORS" in Intensive Care
Once again, with Intensive Care being such a dominant and important multi- Billion $$$ per year Industry, you need to very quickly understand that the decisions and the positioning about your critically ill loved one's diagnosis and prognosis from the Intensive Care team is always
derived from
- The financial viability of your critically ill loved one's stay in Intensive Care from the Intensive Care team's
perspective, i.e.will they make money or will they lose money. Imagine in end of life situations or with severe head or brain injuries, you don't' want the treatment and the care of your loved one dependent on the Intensive Care Unit's budget, or do you?
- The bed
status and the bed situation in the Intensive Care Unit, i.e. will continuing treatment on your critically ill loved one block a bed for other Patients who are in need of a precious and expensive Intensive Care bed and does the Intensive Care team think that other Patients would be more interesting to treat or would they be financially more viable? Again, you don't want the treatment and the care of your loved one dependent on other
admissions need an ICU bed or do you?
- The medical research interests of the Intensive Care team. Medical research is a Multi Million Dollar $$$ per year industry and many Intensive Care Units rely on those revenue and funding streams in order to not only perform medical research on real human beings without often informing vulnerable Patients and their Families and without giving them or their Families a choice. Intensive care units, however rely heavily on those income and funding streams that comes from medical research. Once again, you don't want the treatment and the care of your loved one being dependent on the Intensive Care
team's medical research interests or do you?
The strict academic view of the Intensive Care team and your views are a clash of two worlds
The reality and the fact of the matter is that by the Intensive Care team's strict academic view of clinical situations, you and your Family are kept at arm's length and with this strict academic view the Intensive Care team is consciously or unconsciously trying to position themselves as a superior authority, that always "knows what's best"! That positioning doesn't leave any room for you and your Family's input! In fact the strict academic view of the Intensive Care team is directly targeted at Families of critically ill Patients to not have any PEACE OF MIND, control, power and influence!
It's the clashing of two worlds! There's you and your Family anxiously and passively awaiting the news about your critically ill loved one and there is on the other hand the perceived power, the perceived authority from the Intensive Care team that's "cemented" by their academic achievements and by their academic expert opinion!
The reality and the fact of the matter is that this academic "expert opinion" is difficult to be challenged if you don't know what questions you need to ask, if you don't know what's happening "BEHIND THE SCENES" and if you are not massively taking action to have PEACE OF MIND, control, power and influence!
Also, check out our "YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED" section
where I answer all of YOUR questions
http://intensivecarehotline.com/category/questions/
This is another episode of
"your questions answered" and in last week's episode I answered another question from one of our readers and the question last week was "My Dad had a stroke, has been in Intensive Care for more than 2 ½ months now and is still ventilated, will
he ever get off the ventilator?" You can check out the answer to last week's question here.
In this week's episode of "YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED" I answer another very important and also one of our most frequently asked questions from our readers and the question this week is
How long does it take to DIE after REMOVING the breathing machine or LIFE SUPPORT?
If your
loved one has been in Intensive Care for critical illness and if your loved one is in a situation where the Intensive Care team has suggested to you and your Family that stopping life support or "withdrawing treatment" would be "in the best interest" of your critically ill loved one, then you and your Family might be wondering how long it will actually take until your loved one will actually pass away?
First of all, if you are in this difficult, challenging and also ONCE IN A LIFETIME situation that you are about to lose a loved one to critical illness in Intensive Care, then I can only empathize how terrible and awful you and your Family must feel and I can only empathize the pain and the frustration
you must be going through.
You and your Family are facing your worst nightmares!
Intensive Care is not an easy environment after all and if anything it's
generally testing the faith, the spirit, the belief systems and the values people have. You and your Family are going through a huge challenge and that's even more so if your loved one is approaching their end of life in Intensive Care!
Let's face it, after you and your Family have come to the conclusion after you've had meetings
with the Intensive Care team and also after you have done your own independent research here at INTENSIVECAREHOTLINE.COM that the end of the life of your critically ill loved one is inevitable, you and your Family want to make sure that your critically ill loved one isn't going to
suffer unnecessarily and maybe you also want to get the timing right in this end of life situation, because you may want to make sure that you and your Family are present when life support or the ventilator will be removed!
Related articles:
Whatever you and your Family chose to do in this difficult and challenging situation, whether you do or you don't want to be present during removal of life support, it's your choice and after all, most importantly you want to have PEACE OF MIND,
control, power and influence during this ONCE IN A LIFE TIME situation. So chose what you feel is the right thing for you personally!
Most importantly, don't let the Intensive Care team pressure you to agree to something that you are not ready to as yet.
I have seen too many end of life situations in more than 15 years Intensive Care nursing in three different countries, where Families
of critically ill Patients have been pushed into agreeing to removing or stopping life support, because the Intensive Care team was
- Needing the Intensive Care bed quickly for another Patient in need of Intensive Care admission
- Not wanting to use more of their resources and basically save money
- Not wanting to get too emotionally involved into the end of life situation
- Not wanting to deal with a "difficult" Family any longer where the Intensive Care team just
couldn't handle the pressure and the emotions of the Family any longer
- Finishing off doing some medical research on your critically ill loved one and now they are ready to let your loved one die
The bottom line
is that you and your Family want to be in control, you want to have power, you want influence and after all you want to have PEACE OF MIND in this challenging and "ONCE IN A LIFE TIME" situation.
How to make sure that your needs are met in this ONCE IN A LIFETIME situation
If you and your Family need more time
that you want to spend with your critically ill loved one before life support or the ventilator will be removed, because you are waiting for an important Family member or friend to be present, then you need to make that very clear to the Intensive Care team. If you and your Family member want to spend another day or night at the bedside with your critically ill loved one then you need to make that very clear to the Intensive Care team and you should accept nothing less than what you
want.
If you want to have certain spiritual, cultural or religious needs met, you should be asking for that and you should accept nothing less than what you are asking for.
If you want to have your loved one pass away at home, despite their ventilation you should ask for it as certain services can provide such holistic care and services. Check out WWW.INTENSIVECAREATHOME.COM.AU
If you think and feel that your critically ill loved one is unnecessarily suffering and you think that every minute of their life is a burden then you should make that very clear also!
Related article:
My husband is dying in Intensive Care, but we need more time...
The bottom line and the fact of the
matter in this ONCE IN A LIFETIME situation is that you and your Family want to leave this situation with PEACE OF MIND, control, power and influence, because as heartbreaking as this situation is for you and for your Family you don't want to overburden yourself and you don't want to have any regrets, you don't want to leave with a bitter taste in your mouth and think afterwards that the end of life situation could have been handled differently and better!
Also, don't assume that because the Intensive Care team is dealing with end of life situations regularly that they know or understand what your wishes really are! Intensive Care is a high pressure environment and the Intensive Care team might hasten or "speed up" this end of life situation in a manner that you don't feel comfortable with!
You and your Family need to live with the memories of this situation for the rest of your lives, so make sure your needs are met!
What to expect when it's time to let go
After you and your Family have established what the end of life situation should look like so that you can have PEACE OF MIND, control, power and influence, then you can hopefully approach the situation with more comfort, confidence and then you can finally let go.
By the time life support or ventilation will be removed your critically ill loved one may respond in a number of ways that are hardly foreseeable or predictable.
If your critically ill loved one is
- Fully ventilator dependent and not on any medical support for a low blood pressure, once the breathing tube and the ventilator have been removed, your loved one can die within a few minutes or sometimes it can take a few days. The main difference tends to be how strong your critically ill loved one's heart still
beats
- If your critically ill loved one is ventilated, has a breathing tube and is on high inotropic support(intravenous medication for low blood pressure), then your critically ill loved one may pass away relatively quickly within minutes or a few hours after those life
sustaining measures have been removed
Most importantly, in any of those situations, it is of utmost importance that your critically ill loved one is not suffering! This usually can be achieved by giving high doses of sedation and opiates and the drugs generally used during those end of life situations are
Midazolam and Morphine. Generally speaking high doses means 10-15 mg/hr of each drug. Sometimes boluses of the drugs may be given as well!
I hope that helps and I hope that even though you and your Family are in a difficult, challenging and ONCE IN A LIFETIME situation that you can leave this situation with PEACE OF MIND, control, power and influence.
Always remember, you can't change what happens to you, but you can change how you react to it!
Also, I hope no matter how difficult, challenging, heartbreaking and devastating this situation may appear to you, try and find some meaning and strength in this situation! Is there
meaning after all? Does the death of your loved one serve some purpose? Whilst I can't answer the question for you, I believe that if you keep looking for it, that you'll find meaning, purpose and clarity!
Sincerely, your Friend
Patrik Hutzel
If you want your questions answered just hit reply to this email or email me at support@intensivecarehotline.com and I'll answer your questions!
Also keep an eye out for our upcoming product launch in the next couple of months! We are NOW finalizing our first product that will help Families of critically ill Patients MASTER, take control, have power and
influence in all of the most challenging situations in Intensive Care, even if their loved one is dying!
The product will be an "IN-DEPTH" education product for Families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care and a SHORTCUT for Families to have PEACE OF MIND, control, power& influence! The focus of the education product will be on PEACE OF MIND, control, power and influence during
the following situations in Intensive Care
- long-term stays in Intensive Care
- end- of- life situations
- Family meetings with the Intensive Care team
- withdrawal of treatment situations and/or perceived medical
futility
- severe head and brain injuries
The product will be made available in Ebook, Video and Audio format so that our Customers
can consume the product in their chosen medium!
If you have any questions about our upcoming products or if you have any suggestions
please let me know at support@intensivecarehotline.com
Your Friend
Patrik Hutzel
Critical Care Nurse
Founder& Editor
WWW.INTENSIVECAREHOTLINE.COM
