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 shared with you
“HOW TO GIVE YOURSELF PERMISSION
TO HAVE PEACE
OF MIND, CONTROL, POWER AND INFLUENCE WHEN YOUR LOVED ONE IS CRITICALLY ILL IN INTENSIVE CARE!”
You can check out last week's Blog by clicking on the link here!
In this week’s Podcast we feature Delia Scales from Wikihospitals.com !
Listen to Patrik's interview with Delia here
http://intensivecarehotline.com/podcast-delia-scales-founder-wikihospitals-apps-technology-can-improve-peace-mind-control-power-influence-families-intensive-care/
Wikihospitals.com has been inspired by Wikileaks and Wikipedia and Delia’s mission is to bring transparency and openness to the health care sector and into hospitals!
Delia wants to revolutionise healthcare by giving Patients and their families access to data and future technology so that Patients and their Families are better informed about the options of their care and treatment!
In this week’s Podcast Patrik and Delia talk about how Families in Intensive Care can use Wikihospitals.com when they have a loved one critically ill in Intensive Care!
In the interview, Delia shares her vision about Wikihospitals.com providing services and technology for families in Intensive Care by
- Sharing open and transparent information about treatment plans, as well as mechanical ventilation and sedation in Intensive Care in order to fully inform families so that they can make informed decisions
- Families can
be more proactive and involved through open and transparent data sharing
- Wikihospitals wants to empower families in Intensive Care by giving them access to previously hidden data only available to health professionals
- There are many entry points through Wikihospitals for families in Intensive Care by having different categories and different sections classified for different admission scenarios and diseases
- Wikihospitals wants to provide statistics and data that is relevant for Intensive Care Patients and their families
- Wikihospitals is thereby focusing on
recovery time and mortality rates(number of deaths) for different admissions in Intensive Care
- Patrik and Delia discuss how difficult and also important it is to combine data and the emotions that families experience when they have a loved one in Intensive
Care
- Patrik and Delia discuss the implications of data in highly emotionally charged death or life situations
- Who controls the data in hospitals?
- Patrik and Delia discuss the difference in approaches in public and private Intensive Care Units, especially in end of life
situations
- Patrik and Delia discuss the implications of the pressures Families in Intensive Care go through when they are being asked to sign DNR(Do not resuscitate) or NFR (Not for resuscitation) orders and why Intensive Care teams often get it wrong while leading up
to it!
- Patrik and Delia look at the misallocation of funding in Intensive Care, as there is unfortunately no funding for talking to families in Intensive Care
- Delia introduces future apps for families in Intensive Care where they can have control regarding their loved one’s ventilation and tracheostomies
- Delia introduces new technology for tracheostomies to manage a safe airway, especially for Patients after discharge to the ward!
Come and listen to Delia and Patrik in this podcast here!
http://intensivecarehotline.com/podcast-delia-scales-founder-wikihospitals-apps-technology-can-improve-peace-mind-control-power-influence-families-intensive-care/
Here is also a link to a previous podcast that Patrik and Delia recorded last year!
http://intensivecarehotline.com/podcast-interview-delia-scales-founder-wikihospitals/
Enjoy! You can find more information about Wikihospitals and Delia here at www.wikihospitals.com
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 our readers and the question last week was
“HOW WILL I KNOW THAT THE INTENSIVE CARE TEAM ARE MAKING THE RIGHT DECISIONS WHEN THEY SAY THAT MY CRITICALLY ILL LOVED ONE IS DYING?”
You can check out the answer to last week’s question by clicking on the link here.
In
this week’s episode of “YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED” I want to answer another question that our readers ask quite frequently and the question this week is
“CAN I TAKE MY LOVED ONE HOME ON A VENTILATOR TO DIE?”
After more than 15 years Intensive Care nursing in three different countries and after I have literally worked with THOUSANDS of critically ill Patients and their Families, I think I’ve gotten to know
Families in Intensive Care quite well.
I’ve gotten pretty “intimate” so to speak with their thoughts, actions, wishes and behaviours.
Families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care all share a common theme that runs so deep in their Psyche that they are often unaware of and yet they crave it with a vengeance.
And that common
theme that runs through all Families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care is to have PEACE OF MIND, control, power and influence!
And yet, you’ve heard me talking about it over and over again that 99% of Families of critically ill Patients in
Intensive Care don’t have and never will PEACE OF MIND, control, power and influence because they don’t know and don’t believe that it’s possible and they are too intimidated by the “perceived power” and the “perceived authority” of the Intensive Care team.
After all, society has wrongly conditioned us for centuries that we blindly have to put all of our faith and trust in doctors? Right?
Another common theme that all Families of critically ill Patients in Intensive
Care share is that they are worried to ask lots of questions because they are afraid that they look stupid.
And it’s even worse when it comes to end of life and death situations in Intensive Care!
It’s not “in-vogue” to bring up the topic of death and dying and openly talk about it, even in an Intensive Care environment where some critically ill Patients inevitably die!
End of life and death situations are one of the most emotionally charged topics there are!
Even though end of life and death of a loved one are one of the most highly emotionally charged topics one can ever encounter in their lifetime.
End of
life and death of a loved one in Intensive Care can also be an extremely traumatic experience for the Families as well as the Intensive Care team when handled poorly and yet, we still don’t have the courage to openly talk about it!
The
sooner we accept that death is part of life, the sooner we can start talking about death and end of life!
I strongly believe that critically ill Patients in Intensive Care who approach their end of
life and eventually die, die a horrible death in a horrible place.
I also strongly believe that Families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care know this consciously or
unconsciously.
And yet, they tend to be so overwhelmed, stressed, fearful, anxious, vulnerable and they are so far outside of their comfort zone that they often don’t ask the crucial questions they MUST be asking in order to have PEACE OF MIND, control, power and influence!
Especially in death and end of life situations of a loved one in Intensive
Care, Families know deep down that Intensive Care isn’t the right place for their loved one to spend their last few hours or days of their lives!
Where does your loved one die, if given the choice?
Surveys in most 1st world countries confirm that 75 % of the adult population want to die at home and yet less than 25 % actually do die at home.
Related articles:
Palliative Care Australia is calling for better end of life care
services!
A five step BLUEPRINT for DYING WELL and with DIGNITY in Intensive Care!
That implies that more than 75% of the population die elsewhere. Where do they die, if not at home?
Well, you probably guessed
it, they die in hospitals, nursing homes, hospices and after all more than 75% of the population is facing an institutionalised death.
Now, as you know, I’m the expert on Intensive Care and I can’t really talk about what’s
happening in nursing homes, hospital wards or hospices.
I do however know that death and end of life in Intensive Care is all but ideal.
I also know that if more than 75% of the adult population die in institutions such as Hospitals, Nursing homes, hospices etc… even though more than 75% of the adult population wants to die at home, it strongly suggests that those organisations such as Hospitals, Nursing Homes, Hospices etc.. operate in a vacuum.
It means that if more than 75% of the adult population and their Families at the end of their lives are not getting their needs met, it means that society, health professionals, politicians etc… once again are getting it all wrong!
Let’s go back to Intensive Care, which is where we started!
If your loved one is approaching
their end of life on a ventilator in Intensive Care I know that most families of those critically ill Patients in Intensive Care secretly want to have their loved one die at home, but rarely have the guts to ask in order to get what they want!
Again, it comes back to families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care
- Not wanting to ask questions because they are afraid of looking stupid
- Not wanting to talk about death and dying
- Not wanting to upset the status quo and not
wanting to upset the “perceived power” and the “perceived authority” of the Intensive Care team, who doesn’t want to give families and/or Patients at the end of their live choice
- Not
following their gut feeling and intuition even though they know deep down that dying and approaching one’s end of life at home is the right thing to do
Think about it. If your loved one is critically ill in Intensive
Care, is ventilated and has a tracheostomy and has been in Intensive Care for a while and is now inevitably approaching their end of life, don’t you think that their last few days or weeks of their life would be much better spent in their own familiar environment?
Don’t you think that you, your family and your critically ill loved one would have PEACE OF MIND, control, power and influence if you were in your own home rather than in Intensive Care?
Don’t you think that even though most Intensive
Care Units and most Intensive Care teams don’t offer “choice” to Patients and their families in most situations, let alone in death and end of life situations that they should have an interest in facilitating such a transition home?
It’s all about choice and having a genuine alternative!
You’ve heard me mentioning before that Intensive Care is an extremely expensive environment with limited resources.
Therefore, if your critically ill loved one approaches their end of life in Intensive Care on a ventilator, the resources being used in an Intensive Care environment cost around $ 5,000 (~£ 3,000) per bed day, therefore the Intensive Care team should have an interest in helping you to facilitate a dignified death
of your loved one in their own home.
Not only do you, your family and your critically ill loved one get what you want, the Intensive Care team and the Intensive Care Unit get what they want too. It’s a ”win-win” situation.
They free up an expensive, scarce, precious and “in-demand” Intensive Care bed and you can, with the right support structure and professional services take your loved one home.
There are services available that provide INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME services who facilitate a 24/hour nursing care for your critically ill loved one, even if they are approaching their end of life.
Those INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME services work with Critical Care trained Nursing staff and they facilitate a smooth transition from Intensive Care to an Intensive home care environment. It’s a genuine
alternative to approaching death and end of life in a depressing, sterile and institutionalised Intensive Care Unit.
INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME services provide all the equipment, staff etc… and they provide a dignified and private end of life situation for your family and for your critically ill loved one. They know how to handle end of life situations and they are good at it.
No dying in a sterile Intensive Care bed space, where the number of visitors is restricted, where other people come and go all the time.
No dying in
a sterile Intensive Care environment where the Intensive Care team has control, power and influence.
Instead you and your family can have PEACE OF MIND, control, power and influence in you rown home even though your critically ill loved one
is dying!
You, your family and your critically ill loved one can have your cultural, spiritual and/or religious needs met in a place that is your home.
And hospitals, Intensive Care Units and health service funding agencies should be fully supportive of giving people what they want.
Taking ventilated Patients
home at the end of their life is not only giving Families and Patients what they want, it’s also a cost saver.
As I mentioned before, an ICU bed costs around $ 5,000 (~ £ 3,000) per bed day and INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME services generally are only around $ 3,000 (~ £ 1,900) per bed day, therefore this is a win-win situation altogether!
Your next step is to check out WWW.INTENSIVECAREATHOME.COM.AU and find out more about its service offer!
Please let me know if you have any questions. Send your questions
to support@intensivecarehotline.com
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!
You can also send through your stories and share them on our BLOG for our readers! Just email support@intensivecarehotline.com or leave a comment on our BLOG
Or if
you want to be featured on our PODCAST with your story, just email me at support@intensivecarehotline.com
FREE Video Mini- Course out now!
If you are interested in more FREE education and information if your loved one is critically ill in Intensive Care, I
have created a FREE mini- course
A BLUEPRINT for PEACE OF MIND, CONTROL, POWER& INFLUENCE whilst your loved one is critically ill in Intensive Care!
The FREE Video Mini-
course consists of 4 short videos that will educate you quickly and succinctly how you can have PEACE OF MIND, control, power and influence whilst your loved one is critically ill in Intensive Care.
You can sign up and get your first FREE Video here
http://intensivecarehotline.com/free-mini-course/
Also, our cutting edge new information PRODUCT will be released in the next few weeks!
It has been a long time in the making and because it's such an in-depth program it took some time and we are now only a few weeks away from releasing our first information product for Families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care!
Our first cutting edge information 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 information 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
- Family meetings with the Intensive Care team
- withdrawal of treatment situations and/or perceived medical futility
- what to do if your critically ill loved one is THREATENED with an "NFR" (Not for resuscitation) or "DNR" (Do not resuscitate)
order
- severe head and brain injuries (including traumatic brain injuries and stroke)
The information product will be made available in Ebook, Video and Audio format so that our Customers can consume the information product in their chosen
medium!
Keep your eyes on news and updates for our cutting edge new information PRODUCT in the next few weeks!
The Ebooks, Videos and Audios will be a solution to
the biggest and most challenging areas in Intensive Care for Families of critically ill Patients!
Our cutting edge new information PRODUCT is a shortcut to PEACE OF MIND, control, power and influence for Families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care!
I will be sending more updates in the next few weeks about our first information product for families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care!
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