WHAT CAN INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME OFFER MY 57-YEAR OLD MOM WITH TRACHEOSTOMY?

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WHAT CAN INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME OFFER MY 57-YEAR OLD MOM WITH TRACHEOSTOMY?

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In today’s blog post, I want to answer a question from one of our clients and the question today is

What Can Intensive Care at Home Offer my 57-year old Mom with Tracheostomy?

Hi Patrik,

My mom has been in intensive care now for two weeks and she has gone into ICU with COVID pneumonia. And she’s on high oxygen levels and on high PEEP. And we are at day 14 today.

The palliative care doctor wants a decision by myself and my family within the next few days, whether we should be ending her life because she’s saying, “Well, she won’t have any quality of life even if she will survive it and she will be disabled. And she will need help for the rest of her life if she does survive this ICU stay.” Or the other option they’re giving us if we want to consent to tracheostomy instead, once her FIO2 and PEEP has come down eventually, but they’re not sure whether that can be achieved or not. The palliative care doctor had not inquired with ICU doctor to inquire if the tracheostomy would be temporary, and also if she needs dialysis in the long term, because at the moment she’s on dialysis or she has been on dialysis for the last few days.

Thank you very much for the services that you offer. We are wondering that if she has a tracheostomy, what Intensive Care at Home could offer for her. We are in Sydney, Australia. My mom is only 57. What are our options?

From Drew

Hi Drew,

Thank you so much for your question. I’m very sorry to hear about your mom’s situation.

Now, at such a young age at 57 years of age, the palliative care doctor should not be talking about palliative care, but to rather consult with the intensive care team, what to do next in order to save your mom’s life. She may not have any quality of life going forward, or may not have any perceived quality of life going forward, but nobody knows and nobody has a crystal ball. And ICUs and palliative care are very poor at predicting what life looks like outside of intensive care once people survive. Furthermore, ICUs especially at the moment are still under high pressure, i.e. if they end your mom’s life, they can empty in bed that they have very high demand for. So you should be asking all the right questions in order to make the right decision for your mom.

Once she has a tracheostomy, then you can absolutely look at home care if she can’t come off the ventilator, especially if she’s 57, she will qualify for the NDIS. And the NDIS will fund home care for ventilation and tracheostomy assuming your mom can’t come off the ventilator and tracheostomy in hospital for whatever reason.

So the options are definitely there. You should definitely buy some time there. Ask them to continue treatment, clear the pneumonia, hopefully, and then once the pneumonia is cleared and her FIO2 and PEEP has come down, then look at the tracheostomy. Hopefully she can take the next steps and then if she can’t come off the ventilator in ICU, can’t come off the tracheostomy, then you should absolutely look at Intensive Care at Home. And you’re doing the ICU a favor there as well by helping them to empty their ICU bed.

But now when it comes to the NDIS, you will need to obviously apply there to become a participant for your mom, but we can help you with that. You should reach out to us so we can help you with the next steps. We also provide specialist support coordination under the NDIS, that can help you with the funding. So please contact us at your earliest convenience. Just go to our website, intensivecareathome.com and call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website, or send us an email to info@intensivecareathome.com...

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