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 "A FIVE step BLUEPRINT for DYING well and with DIGNITY in Intensive Care"

You can check out last week's blog here!

In this week's BLOG I want to show you

How to REPROGRAM YOUR MIND if your loved one is critically ill in Intensive Care

One of the biggest life lessons for me was that a mentor once told me that

IF YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE ANYTHING WORTHWHILE IN LIFE, YOU NEED TO LOOK AT WHAT EVERYBODY ELSE IS DOING AND YOU NEED TO DO THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE!

If running with the herd is your thing, then you might want to pause for a second and think twice.

This is what I had to do when I first heard this:

IF YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE ANYTHING WORTHWHILE IN LIFE, YOU NEED TO LOOK AT WHAT EVERYBODY ELSE IS DOING AND YOU NEED TO DO THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE!

In fact, this was such a strong statement when I first heard about it from my mentor and it never even occurred to me remotely that one of the reasons I haven't gotten the results in life that I wanted for myself was because I was stuck in mediocrity and I was stuck with looking what everybody else was doing and mistakenly copying what they were doing.

If you look at what everybody else is doing you get no or average results

That's why I only got average results, whether it was on a personal or professional level!

I only achieved my goals on a personal and professional level when I did indeed go against the grain and did the complete opposite from what everybody else was doing!

How does that translate to your situation when your loved one is critically ill in Intensive Care?

Well, if your loved one is critically ill in Intensive Care and is in one of the following difficult and challenging situations where they are

• 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

I bet that you and your Family are way outside of your comfort zone.

I bet that you and your Family have sleepless nights, I bet that you and your Family feel stressed, anxious, overwhelmed, frustrated, you are on an emotional rollercoaster and you feel extremely vulnerable.

And look, I can empathise with how you feel! After having worked as an Intensive Care Nurse for more than 15 years in three different countries and after I have worked with literally thousands of critically ill Patients and their Families and guided them through the difficult, heartbreaking and challenging situations they have found themselves in.

I know that it's not easy and I know that it's difficult and I also know that you have few or no role models how you can successfully master this challenge and difficult situation!

Your priority in this situation that you have found yourself in is to have PEACE OF MIND, control, power and influence!

Why do 99% of Families of critically ill Patients have no PEACE OF MIND, no control, no power and no influence?

And look, if you are sitting in the waiting room in an Intensive Care Unit and in this waiting room you see the sorrow, the pain, the frustration and the overwhelm that other Families of critically ill Patients are experiencing you also know by either talking to them or by just looking at them that they have no PEACE OF MIND, they have no power, they have no control and they have no influence!

They just sit there passively waiting for any news from the Intensive Care team and they sit there drowning in sorrow rather than being pro- active!

Remember what I said before?

IF YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE ANYTHING WORTHWHILE IN LIFE, YOU NEED TO LOOK AT WHAT EVERYBODY ELSE IS DOING AND YOU NEED TO DO THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE!

Therefore, look at what 99% of Families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care are doing who have no PEACE OF MIND, who have no control, who have no power and who have no influence!

Look exactly at what they are doing, look at their poor body language, look at how they communicate with the Intensive Care team(they usually "suck up" to the Intensive Care team), they are generally passive, they don't ask questions, they tend to put all trust and faith in the Intensive Care team without doing their own research and worst of all they just don't believe that PEACE OF MIND, control, power and influence is something they can achieve!

Got that?

It's time to take action!

So after you've observed what 99% of Families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care are doing who have no PEACE OF MIND, who have no power, who have no control and who have no influence you and your Family have decided that it's time to do the complete opposite of what they are doing!

Because by now you know that PEACE OF MIND, control, power and influence are possible!

You know that you need to make up your own mind, you know that you need to do your own research, you know that you shouldn't take everything for "FACE VALUE" the Intensive Care team is telling you, you know that most decisions in Intensive Care happen "BEHIND THE SCENES", hidden away from Families and you also know that the Intensive Care team more often than not has a hidden agenda, especially if your critically ill loved one is

• 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 also know that you are in a "ONCE IN A LIFETIME" situation and you know by now that you can't really afford to getting this "ONCE IN A LIFETIME" wrong!

You also know by now that the Intensive Care team is too busy talking to you, you also know by now that they tend to talk over you and at you rather than entering into a genuine dialogue with you and you know by now that the Intensive Care team speaks all medical and academic jargon and they are not really interested in answering your difficult questions!

"What about if my critically ill loved one is dying?"

"What about if my critically ill loved one will not have the same quality of life than they had before they got admitted to Intensive Care?"

"What about if my critically ill loved one has a head injury or brain damage, will they wake up?"

"What about if my critically ill loved one needs to stay in Intensive Care for many weeks?"

Those are just a snapshot of questions that Families of critically ill Patients tend to ask on a consistent basis, however Families of critically ill Patients generally are afraid in asking them because they are worried that they look stupid when asking those questions and the Intensive Care team tends to be very vague in answering them, because if they did, they might give away too much information and besides they also think that they are too busy in answering them...

Doing your own research pays dividends

If you have come this far and if you have started to do your own research, you have already sensed that you need to stop looking now what everybody else is doing and you have realised that you need to do the complete opposite!

You know that there is no turning back, you know that doing the complete opposite of what 99% of Families of critically ill Patients are doing is giving you leverage, it's giving you PEACE OF MIND, control, power and influence!

And you know that your critically ill loved one's prognosis, their diagnosis, the care and treatment they've been offered or not offered goes way beyond what you see on the surface!

You know that the dynamics, the politics, the power play, the psychology, the intrigue and the hidden agendas "BEHIND THE SCENES" are extremely powerful forces that you mustn't ignore if your loved one is critically ill in Intensive Care!

Medical research brings conflict of interest situations!

You also know by now that Intensive Care and the medical research that is constantly being performed out on real human beings, often without them and their Families knowing, is a Billion $$$ Dollar per year industry and there are massive interests that come attached with medical research!

You know by now that diagnosis, prognosis and care and treatment offered for your critically ill loved one by the Intensive Care team can be subject to their competing interests that you now have an awareness about!

You have the choice to continue running with the herd and do what everybody else is doing or you can do what my mentor told me a few years back:

IF YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE ANYTHING WORTHWHILE IN LIFE, YOU NEED TO LOOK AT WHAT EVERYBODY ELSE IS DOING AND YOU NEED TO DO THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE!"

Here is your chance to do the complete opposite of what everybody else is doing and get 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/

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!

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 HUSBAND had a HORRIBLE work accident and went into CARDIAC ARREST! Will he be PERMANENTLY DISABLED?

You can check out last week's question here.

In this week's episode of "YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED" I want to answer another question from one of our readers and this week Karina asks

"My husband had a HORRIBLE work accident and went into CARDIAC ARREST. Will he be PERMANENTLY DISABLED?"

Hi Patrik,

My 49 year old husband has had a horrible work accident, he fell off a roof while painting. He crashed so badly that he went into a cardiac arrest and he had to be resuscitated when he first arrived at the Hospital in the emergency room as he went into cardiac arrest. They couldn't rule out that he had a lack of oxygen to his brain during the cardiac arrest.

This is a good two weeks ago now and initially he was in an induced coma and now they have brought him out of the induced coma.

My husband has woken up from the coma and he is now breathing on his own with a Tracheostomy but is acting very funny, he is trying to bite stuff and he moves his tongue a lot.

I'm very nervous that he will become disabled I really need an answer from you please. I think about the fact that he will become disabled every single day and I'm really worried!

I haven't slept or eaten properly and I need some PEACE OF MIND! Please answer ASAP! Sorry for reaching out to you so late.

He also has had a CT of his brain but it didn't show any brain damage.

My husband has a brain contusion on the left side and now I am also worried that he might have some brain damage from the lack of oxygen during the cardiac arrest when he had to be resuscitated.

We have three young children and I'm extremely worried!

Please help!

Karina

Hi Karina,

I'm very sorry to hear what you and your Family are going through since your husband has been admitted to Intensive Care!

And you are more than welcome to ask questions here.

Sometimes when you are faced with a challenge like this it often helps to reach out for help and get a different perspective and help.

From what you are describing Karina, I don't think there is any reason to panic.

Many critically ill Patients in Intensive Care after coming out of an induced coma can show signs of confusion and agitation. It's difficult to tell from a distance whether the confusion is from brain damage or from "not waking" up properly after sedation and induced coma.

 Here is a link to an article that will explain this issue in more detail

 The 5 things you need to know if your loved one is confused, agitated and delirious in Intensive Care 

The other issue that you are pointing out is that your husband may have had some brain damage from the cardiac arrest as they couldn't or can't rule out lack of oxygen. Sometimes a CT of the brain can be inaccurate and it may not show actual damage or it may show the damage later if there is any.

It's a good sign however that your husband is moving at all! It would be worse if he wasn't moving and the coordination of his movement might come back eventually.

Here is a link to a related article about potential brain damage

 What is the prognosis after my critically ill loved one's brain has not had sufficient oxygen supply(hypoxic brain injury)?

Patients often get confused after an induced coma and they can also get confused from brain damage/ lack of oxygen to the brain. A brain contusion doesn't normally cause confusion in the longer term.

Here are more articles that explain the "waking up" issue in Intensive Care in more detail

What could be the cause if my critically ill loved one is REMOVED from an induced coma but still hasn't woken up?

How LONG does it take to WAKE UP after an induced coma?

What's really important is that you and your Family stay patient and positive during this challenge. Every Patient in Intensive Care is different and you might just give your husband the time he needs to recover.

It's not only the injuries he has to recover from, he also will take his own time to "wake up" from the sedation!

Wishing you and your Family all the very best

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
• threatened with an "NFR"(Not for resuscitation) or "DNR"(Do not resuscitate) order
  
• 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