Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from INTENSIVECAREHOTLINE.COM, where
we instantly improve the lives for Families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care, so that you can make informed decisions, 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 talked about PART 1 of
You don’t know what you don’t know when your loved one is critically ill in Intensive Care! (PART 1)
You can check out last week’s BLOG by clicking on the link here.
In this week’s blog I want to hone in on PART 2 of
You don’t know what you don’t know when your loved one is critically ill in Intensive Care! (PART 2)
I do believe that this is one of the most important blog posts that I have written, because it turns out that most families in Intensive Care don’t know what they don’t know!
You don’t know what to look for, you don’t know how to make sense out of the situation, you simply don’t know how to counteract the negativity of the Intensive Care team and you therefore don’t know how to
position your critically ill loved one’s diagnosis, prognosis as well as your loved one’s care and treatment so that you get what you want, need and deserve!
Before I get into today’s topic, I wrote a quote on today’s topic and the quote says
When you and your family are faced with this massive “once in a lifetime” challenge of having a loved one critically ill in Intensive Care you simply “don’t know what you don’t know!”
99% of the families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care make no informed decisions, they have no peace of mind, no power, no control and no influence, because they don’t know what they don’t know!
Walking into Intensive
Care is a bit like walking into the “Matrix”, it’s almost like a hidden universe that is opening up in front of you, where you very quickly dislike what you see!
Most importantly, what you see usually doesn’t make a lot of sense and if you find that it does make sense it usually doesn’t take long to become unravelled!
You’ll also find that ”what you see is not always what you get!” in Intensive Care!
Critical illness in Intensive Care is a very complex issue, with dynamics unfolding that you wouldn’t have even thought of in your wildest dreams!
It’s usually an emotional roller coaster ride that you had not anticipated and there are no guarantees of a successful outcome for you and for your critically ill loved one, especially if you do what 99% of the families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care are doing, who make no informed decisions, have no peace of mind, no power, no control and no influence!
To increase your and your critically ill loved one’s chances to get the outcomes you want, need and deserve, you very quickly need to find a road map of the territory and you very quickly need to acknowledge that you “don’t know what you don’t know” and you need to seek help quickly!
Once you have acknowledged that you simply “don’t know what you don’t know”, you can then take action towards filling the gaps in your knowledge and in the process stand out from the crowd, make informed decisions, get peace of mind, control, power and influence!
So let’s get into today’s topic!
As I mentioned last week, I do tremendously enjoy the work that
I’m doing because I know I have a tremendously positive impact on people’s life every day!
But because I also have a relatively large number of families find my website INTENSIVECAREHOTLINE.COM, after they have lost a loved one in Intensive Care, I have found this to be very frustrating because I know I could have helped them if they had only come to me whilst their loved one was still in
Intensive Care!
I could have helped them maximize the chances of their critically ill loved one surviving their Intensive Care stay!
How?
Because I know what questions families need to ask and I generally know what families in
Intensive Care don’t know what they don’t know…
I also know what Intensive Care teams are hiding from you and your family and once you start asking the right questions and once you have a professional advocate involved like myself, who can speak to doctors, nurses and Intensive Care teams on the same level, usually the dynamics change in your and your family’s favour!
You can go from feeling intimidated by the “perceived power” and the “perceived authority” of the Intensive Care team to getting a handle on things very quickly and in the process getting real power, control, influence, peace of mind and you can make real informed decisions!
To give you an example, some of the clients that I work with
come to me when they are being told by the doctors and by Intensive Care teams that their loved one is dying in Intensive Care.
How do you know if this is accurate or not?
How do you know if what the Intensive Care team is telling you is not designed to scare you and to manage their resources such as beds, equipment,
finances and staff to the best of their abilities?
How do you know if the Intensive Care team is telling you that your loved one is dying is not designed to empty one of their expensive, precious and “in-demand” ICU beds and get the next, more profitable Patient into their Intensive Care Unit?
Related
article/video:
To illustrate this in an example, a few months back I was working with a client who was told by the Intensive Care team that it’s “in the best interest” for their critically ill loved one to remove life support and let their
loved one die.
The family objected this and was told by the Intensive Care doctors that it was a “medical decision” and that they had no choice.
How rude and inappropriate is that?
The family got me involved and the family hired me and my services and through asking the right questions, through gathering evidence through medical records, we were able to find that the Intensive Care team had issued an NFR (Not for resuscitation) order without the family’s knowledge and without family consent.
Recommended:
I was telling this the family from the very start that they most likely had issued this NFR(DNR) for their critically ill loved one without informing them and I was right.
I have seen and
witnessed this over and over again in nearly 20 years Intensive Care Nursing in three different countries where I literally worked with thousands of critically ill Patients and their families and where I also worked as Nurse Unit Manager for over 5 years!
And I witness it now in my daily practice of 1:1 counselling, consulting and advocacy for families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care, where I talk to and work with families in Intensive Care all over the world!
It’s the same over and over again, families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care, simply don’t know
what they don’t know!
Back to our original example when working with clients.
As soon as we had the evidence that the Intensive Care team had issued an NFR(Not for resuscitation) order against family’s wishes and without their consent, the family went to court and had the NFR order taken off by the court because the
hospital had illegally issued the NFR order.
The good news is that with my help, expertise, insider knowledge and negotiation skills the family’s critically ill loved one survived their ICU stay and is still alive to this day!
The moral of the story?
You don’t know what you don’t know and without expert help and without professional advocacy there is a very good chance that the Intensive Care team is not putting all their cards on the table!
There is a very good chance that they hide behind medical and academic jargon that keeps you in the dark and is keeping you at arm’s length!
It doesn’t have to be that way and I can help you make sense out of your critically ill loved one’s situation very quickly!
I know what questions to ask, I know what to look for and I know how to position your critically ill loved one’s diagnosis, their prognosis as well as their care and their treatment in alight that will help you
getting the outcomes that you want, need and deserve!
I can help you to stay in control of your critically ill loved one’s fate and destiny!
Especially if your critically ill loved one is
In those situations you and your family don’t want be another “casualty” of the Intensive Care team and you don’t want be finding out that you could have gotten help quickly to maximize chances for survival of your critically ill loved one!
As I mentioned last week many families come to me at INTENSIVECAREHOTLINE.COM because they had a loved one die in Intensive Care!
After their loved ones have passed away they are looking for answers and then they find INTENSIVECAREHOTLINE.COM
They then come to us full of surprise that such a website as well as counselling, consulting and advocacy services exist. But it’s too late, their loved ones have gone!
Yes, we can provide bereavement counselling as well and we can review medical records so that families get closure, but rather than hiring me for bereavement counselling or for reviewing medical records, I would much
rather help you when your loved one is in Intensive Care so that we can maximize chances to get your critically ill loved one out of Intensive Care alive!
