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 the last blog I talked about

Family meetings in Intensive Care, how to avoid the pitfalls!

You can check out last week’s blog by clicking on the link here.

In this week’s blog I want to talk about

The 6 deadly excuses that hold you back from making informed decisions, get peace of mind, control, power and influence, when your loved one is critically ill in Intensive Care! (PART 1)

Before I get into today’s topic I want to share a quote with you that I wrote on today’s topic and the quote says

Most families who have a loved one critically ill in Intensive Care highly underestimate this “once in a lifetime” situation that they can’t afford to get wrong!

Most families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care when first confronted with this “once in a lifetime” situation are frustrated, anxious, stressed, worried, overwhelmed, vulnerable, have sleepless nights and are confused by the often tragic events that unfold before their very eyes!

Most families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care can’t see the wood for the trees and don’t have perspective when their loved one is critically ill in Intensive Care!

And how could they? It takes many years of experience and insider knowledge to understand what’s really at stake when your loved one is critically ill in Intensive Care!

The consequences of having a loved one critically ill in Intensive Care can be dramatic and the consequences can be deadly quite literally.

Therefore, any family who has a loved one critically ill in Intensive Care and wants to make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power and influence needs to advance very quickly, needs to start doing their own research, quickly learn what questions they need to ask!

 They also need to very quickly learn and understand that “what you see is not always what you get” in Intensive Care, because there are so many dynamics and variables at play that families at first have no knowledge about.

Intensive Care is an extremely volatile as well as highly political environment and therefore you and your family need to be prepared as much as you can, because if you are not, the consequences can be deadly quite literally!

So let’s get into today’s topic!

If you have read or watched one of my most recent blog posts/videos “ Having your loved one critically ill in Intensive Care, don’t be a victim!” you would have seen that I have many families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care come to me when it’s too late!

This is an extremely worrying trend and one that has emerged in recent months!

I have made the unfortunate experience that many families either find my blog and/or seek out my expertise when it’s too late.

The consequences are dramatic and the consequences are deadly in a literal sense.

Quite frankly, families who had a loved one critically ill in Intensive Care that passed away during their stay in Intensive Care are very surprised when they first come to my website that such information even exists!

They are so surprised that they feel compelled to become a subscriber to my blog and often make contact and they share their heartbreaking stories!

Some of them go as far and want my counsel and advice when it’s too late when their loved one has already passed away in Intensive Care!

Now, I’m very happy to do that, because just as my service is quite literally a hotline where you can call or email and you will get a response and answer to your questions, I also see my service as a bereavement counselling service.

However it’s also breaking my heart when I hear that people have lost their mother, father, husband, wife, brother, sister or even their children!

Having worked with hundreds and even thousands of families in Intensive Care during some of the most dramatic situations in Intensive Care where they have lost a loved one, I have intimate insights and knowledge how to professionally deal with such trauma and help those families who experience such trauma and loss!

But don’t look for information when it’s too late!

However, the fact of the matter is that I would much more prefer that you’d come to my website when it’s not too late so that I can help you!

I can help you with bereavement counselling, however I would much rather help you to save your critically ill loved one’s life if I can, by sharing my insights, my skills, my expertise and my more than 15 years Intensive Care nursing experience in three different countries where I literally worked with thousands of critically ill Patients and their families!

In fact, I ran an online webinar this week where two of the webinar attendees recently lost their partner and their child respectively in Intensive Care and they are now seeking answers!

It doesn’t have to be that way! Wouldn’t you much rather come to me and seek out my advice before it’s too late?

Given that I have also worked as a Nurse Unit Manager in Intensive Care for more than 5 years, I also have had more than enough insights into the world that is Intensive Care to know and understand how and what the Intensive Care team is choosing to communicate to you and what they don’t communicate and the meaning behind it!

And I would much rather share my insights and expertise with you when it’s not too late! I would much rather empower you to make informed decisions, get peace of mind, control, power and influence so that you can confidently step forward and challenge the Intensive Care team on any of their assumptions and positioning!

Related article/video:

Simply, thank you! You helped saving my grandmother’s life!

Some of the families who have lost a loved one in Intensive Care are even buying some of my Ebooks that would have helped them before their loved one passed away!

Some of the families who have lost a loved one in Intensive Care are also engaging me for 1:1 email counselling/ consulting or 1:1 phone/counselling and consulting to find out what has happened during their loved one’s ICU stay!

Again, I can do all of that and I can help you with that, I can help you finding peace and make meaning out of the situation!

I would much rather you’d invest in the information in my Ebooks and Videos or in my 1:1 Skype/ Phone counselling and consulting or email counselling and consulting upfront so that you’d maximise your chances to make informed decisions, get peace of mind, control, power and influence and hopefully save your critically ill loved one’s life in the process!

You may or may not be able to save your critically ill loved ones life by using my services whether it’s through accessing me directly or whether it’s through accessing my Ebooks, Videos and Audio recordings!

What I can promise though is that by accessing me personally or by accessing my published information you will be in a position to make informed decisions, get peace of mind, control, power and influence, even if your loved one is inevitably dying!

You do need to make sure that the Intensive Care team is doing all the right things!

Me and my information will help you exactly to do that and get a handle on the things that are happening all around you at lightning speed!

However for those of you reading this and for those of you who have a loved one critically ill in Intensive Care now, let me be crystal clear here, that you can’t afford to passively watch this event go by and sit on the sidelines no matter the outcome!

If you are reading this now, chances are that your critically ill loved one is currently either

•   very unstable and in a very critical condition

• in a life threatening situation

• not “waking up” after an induced coma

• in Intensive Care for long-term treatments and long-term stays (including long-term ventilation)

• having a severe(traumatic) head or brain injury

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

• In a situation where the Intensive Care team suggests a “withdrawal of treatment” or a “limitation of treatment” as being “in the best interest” for your critically ill loved one

• approaching their end of life in Intensive Care 

and during those situations there is a very high chance that your critically ill loved one is at risk of dying!

Let me say this again. During the situations that I just mentioned, your critically ill loved one is at risk of dying, period!

Therefore, you may not be in a position to accurately assess that risk and neither are you often in a position to interpret and evaluate the information the Intensive Care team is giving you or not giving you accurately!

After working with and talking to thousands of critically ill Patients and their families in Intensive Care either in my clinical practice, in my 1:1 phone/Skype counselling/consulting service and/or in my email counselling and consulting service I have found that most families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care are not prepared to step up to the plate and do what is necessary to make informed decisions, get peace of mind, control, power and influence!

I go as far and I say that as a matter of fact 99% of families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care don’t make informed decisions, don’t get peace of mind, control, power and influence, period!

They keep on making excuses and I have seen and identified 6 of the most common and also deadly excuses they keep making!

• Deadly excuse Number one: Families in Intensive Care think they have no time to do their own research

The 99% of the families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care who make no informed decisions, have no peace of mind, no control, no power and no influence say that they have no time to do their own research!

Ok, I get it. Your loved one is critically ill in Intensive Care and you are just so overwhelmed by it that you think you can’t deal with this in a rational manner or let alone finding time to deal with this besides listening to what the Intensive Care team is telling you!

I know you’ve got a busy life and I understand that you’ve got kids, you’ve got a spouse, you probably have a busy career and you might have your mother to look after whilst your Dad is in Intensive Care!

I get it. This is not the situation you have been waiting for…

However by doing your own research it’s probably the best time you’ll ever spend, especially if it helps you to get on the right path and especially if it helps you to potentially save your critically ill loved one’s life!

But even if you can’t save your critically ill loved one’s life, you still have to find out whether the Intensive Care team is doing all the right things!

No matter the situation, you still need to make informed decisions, get peace of mind, control, power and influence!

The fact of the matter is that if you do invest the time to start doing your own research, if you do invest time to read or watch my free “INSTANT IMPACT” report, if you start reading or watching some of the hundreds of questions that I answered for families in Intensive Care like you, you will find very quickly that you can’t afford not to make time to do your own research when your loved one is critically ill in Intensive Care!

• Deadly excuse number two: Families in Intensive Care think that the Intensive Care team knows what they are doing

I had a Client recently that took up my 1:1 phone/ Skype counselling and consulting!

The Client’s Dad had been in ICU for over six weeks when they first contacted me.

The Client’s Dad had Cardiomyopathy and had been in an Induced coma for over four weeks with no tracheostomy!

Depending on where you are at in your journey through the Intensive Care landscape, four weeks in an induced coma on a ventilator in Intensive Care with no tracheostomy screams negligence to me!

Mind you, this was in a first world country! A tracheostomy should be done after a couple of weeks at the latest when an induced coma is prolonged!

Related article/video:

• HOW LONG SHOULD A PATIENT BE ON A VENTILATOR BEFORE HAVING A TRACHEOSTOMY?

The first thing I said to this Client is that his Dad needs a tracheostomy ASAP so that he can get out of the induced coma!

The client went back to the Intensive Care team with this demand and they were doing a tracheostomy on their Dad within the next 48 hours, because I gave the Client all the information they needed to have why their Dad needed a tracheostomy!

Therefore, if you are not prepared to do your own research the Intensive Care team can pretty much do whatever they like!

It’s imperative that you check on easily available and mostly free online information that will give you most of the answers to your questions!

And keep in mind, you don’t have to be sitting at home to do your own research, you can do it on the go, on your mobile phone or on your Ipad. You can read the info, watch the video or listen to the podcast.

And I’m only a phone or Skype call or an email away!

 Check out the PART 2 of “The 6 deadly excuses that hold you back from making informed decisions, get peace of mind, control, power and influence, when your loved one is critically ill in Intensive Care! (PART 2)

It’ll come out in the next few days!​​​​​​​

Your friend​​​​​​​

Patrik