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!
This is another episode of "YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED" and in last week's episode I answered another question in this series of questions from my client Melissa and the question last week was PART 2 of
My 73 year old Mom had a stroke and is intubated in Intensive
Care. She can’t come off the ventilator and the breathing tube, can she have a tracheostomy and go home and have INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME? (PART 2)
You can check out last week's episode by clicking on the link here.
You can also find PART 1 here
In this week’s episode of "YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED", I want to answer another question from one of my clients Steve, which are excerpts from phone and email counselling and consulting sessions with me and the question this week is
My 73 year old Mom had a stroke and is intubated in Intensive Care. She can’t come off the ventilator and the breathing tube, can she have a tracheostomy and go home and have INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME? (PART 3)
Steve continues with his mother’s situation below
Hi Patrik,
Just wanted to update you. My mum is moving into the ward today. Her breathing tube came out 2 days ago. Last Thursday had meeting with the 2 stroke specialists Jorge and in particular Dr xxxxxx he was a lot more optimistic and said while not to get too excited neurologically she's improving. Her left side was getting a lot stronger and her breathing was getting a lot stronger.
We are now three weeks down the track and therefore it goes to show ICU patients deserve more time. It’s
exactly what you told us from the beginning. This is after Dr xxxxxxx saying she will pass away in the next few days only in the first week of her admission to Intensive Care.... And Dr xxxxxxxx saying her chances of breathing again are next to 0. It goes to show that giving up is never an option and it also goes to show that seeking outside counsel, consulting and advocacy from yourself has already payed off and potentially saved my mother’s life for now.
Especially your positive attitude, vibe and energy as well as your clinical guidance gave us the courage to not take “no” for an answer and also your guidance around how to wean a Patient off the ventilator and the breathing tube put us in a position to keep asking all
the right questions and not let them get away with their negativity and the “doom and gloom”.
Related article/video:
We would not have known as a family what to do in a situation like this and we probably would have given up too early and we would have only
listened to the doctors, which quite frankly would have been disastrous!
You absolutely know your stuff and you seem to know and understand the dynamics as well as the clinical issues in Intensive Care inside out and it has given us and my Mom the best chances to get her out of Intensive Care alive! Thank you!
I'll keep you updated but really thank you so much for the advice and support.
Offered so much clarity and guidance at a time of uncertainty. Speak soon.
Kind Regards,
Steve
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Hi Steve,
Thank you for your update and thank you for your kind words!
I’m very pleased to hear your Mom has finally come off the ventilator and the breathing tube and is now even at the point where she can leave Intensive Care!
Well done and give yourself a pad on the back for being so strong, for standing up for what you
believed in and for challenging the “perceived power” and the “perceived authority” of the Intensive Care team.
You are now officially in the 1% bracket of families in Intensive Care who “get it” and who make informed decisions, get peace of mind, control, power and influence!
99% of the families in Intensive Care continue walking in the dark and they continue to be intimidated by the
Intensive Care team and therefore they will never be in a position where they make informed decisions, get peace of mind, control, power and influence!
I’m even more pleased to hear that you have put your mother in a position where she was able to proof to the Intensive Care team that she can and wants to live, well done!
Even if I sound like a broken record, Intensive Care teams have “hidden agendas” that families in Intensive Care know nothing about unless you start doing your own research or you start talking to somebody like me who knows Intensive Care inside out.
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It also goes to show that Intensive Care teams simply don’t want to give their vulnerable Patients the time to recover in
their own time, which is often what is needed!
It’s something that I keep saying over and over again and the number of people that could have survived Intensive Care if families knew what questions to ask, what to look for and if they knew that “what you see is not always what you get in Intensive Care” they would probably be more aware of the dynamics
in Intensive Care.
Critically ill Patients in Intensive Care are individuals and they therefore need to be given individual treatment and individual timelines for recovery and not timelines that are convenient for the Intensive Care Units financial budgets, financial goals or for their bed management agendas.
The fact of
the matter is that after nearly 20 years Intensive Care nursing experience in three different countries where I also worked as a Nurse Unit Manager in Intensive care for over five years, I have seen it all and I understand and know the dynamics, the games Intensive Care teams play, the possibilities for Patients as well as the possibilities for families inside out!
I really hope it’s all upwards for you and
for your mother from now on, however please keep in mind that if her respiratory centre in the brain is affected from the stroke, she might end up drowsy with CO2(=carbon dioxide levels) going up and potentially outing her into respiratory distress or even type 2 respiratory
failure.
It’s great your Mom has gone this far, but I don’t think she’s out of the woods yet and I do believe she will need neuro rehabilitation.
Three weeks in ICU would have deconditioned her she would have lost muscles and weight and now that she’s off the ventilator it’ll be a lot easier for you and your family to
find out what her cognition is exactly.
They will also need to start mobilising her and get her to walk again with Physiotherapy(Physical therapy), she may need a speech therapy review to help her with speech and swallow and so forth.
Be patient and persistent with your mother’s recovery it might take
time.
Many thanks again for your update and sharing your story, you are giving other families in Intensive Care hope and it will encourage them to not give up, to keep asking the right questions and to keep asking for what they want and also get it!
I hope you and your family will be fine without my help, guidance and
counsel and if you need help again, please let me know!
