Are they rushing my mother to be taken off the ventilator in ICU? Quick tip for families in ICU!

https://intensivecarehotline.com/blog/quick-tip-for-families-in-icu-are-they-rushing-my-mother-to-be-taken-off-the-ventilator-in-icu/

Are they rushing my mother to be taken off the ventilator in ICU? Quick tip for families in ICU!

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Book your free 15-minute phone consultation here

http://intensivecarehotline.com/scheduling-appointment/

Call directly 24/7

+1 415-915-0090 USA/Canada

+44 118 324 3018 UK

+6141 094 2230 Australia

Email support@intensivecarehotline.com

Get 1:1 consulting and advocacy

1:1 phone counselling

http://intensivecarehotline.com/one-on-one-counselling/

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Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com with another quick tip for families in intensive care.

So, today’s tip is about an email that we had from a reader, and the reader is Sharon. She says, “My mother is in ICU, had a cardiac arrest, and is on a ventilator. It’s been one week, and the doctor said she has 5 days, then they will put her on a tracheostomy. She’s not brain-dead, but her results show brain damage. Why are they in such a hurry to take her off the ventilator?” So, it comes back to what I’ve been saying for many years that the biggest challenge for families in intensive care is simply that they don’t know what they don’t know. They don’t know what questions to ask. They don’t know what to look for. They don’t know their rights and they don’t know how to manage doctors and nurses in intensive care. And this is clearly illustrated by this question from Sharon, and it’s okay because it’s such a foreign territory when someone goes into ICU. It takes years of training and working in ICU to really understand what’s happening in intensive care. So, let me explain Sharon, what’s happening here.

So, if your mom is having a tracheostomy in about 5 days, they’re not taking her off the ventilator. If anything, they’re giving her every opportunity to let her wean off the ventilator, assuming she hasn’t been weaned off yet. The challenge with brain damage is that often patients, even if they can come off the ventilator, that they have swallowing issues, that they have speech issues after brain damage after cardiac arrest and a hypoxic brain injury, that in order to protect their airway, they need a tracheostomy and to see whether they can swallow.

If they don’t get a tracheostomy, then they could end up with an aspiration pneumonia because saliva could drip down their trachea and accumulate in the lungs and cause an infection. So, if anything, I do believe with what you’ve shared here, Sharon, they’re doing everything that they can to help your mother get off the ventilator. So, again, keeps coming back to that families in intensive care don’t know what they don’t know.

So, the only question that you should be asking is, what are the chances of getting her off the ventilator before day 10? Because that’s what it looks like to me that day 10 is the sort of cut-off for your mom, and then they want to proceed with the tracheostomy, which makes sense. It’s sort of day 10 to day 14 when you should be doing the tracheostomy.

Continue reading at: https://intensivecarehotline.com/blog/quick-tip-for-families-in-icu-are-they-rushing-my-mother-to-be-taken-off-the-ventilator-in-icu/